LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



ih.m:^ 






^'^/^ . i.lvT. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | 

11 



^v 



THE LIVING TEMPLE, 



OR 



SCRIPTUEAL VIEWS OF THE CHURCH. 



JOHN S 



BY 

.^^TONE, D. D. 



GKISWOLD LECTXTRKE IN THE BIVINITY SCHOOL OF THE PEOTESTANT EPISCOPAL 
CHUECH IN PHILADELPHIA. 






NEW YORK: 

ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, 

No. 770 BROADWAY. 

1866, 



^/ /#^ ^y0^^ 






The LitoRARY 
Oh CoNnuRSS 

WASHINGTON 



Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 

The Pkotestant Episcopal Society foe the Promotion of Evangelical Knowledge, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York. 



1l^t>h 



1 



NEW YORK : 

EDWARD 0. JENKINS, PRINTER, 

20 NORTH WILLI^t^l ST. 




PREFACE 



THE work here offered to the public embodies the 
substance, carefully revised, slightly enlarged and 
somewhat modified, of what was some years ago pub- 
lished under the title of " The Church Universal." No 
essential change has been made ; but the author ven- 
tures to hope that sufficient improvement has been ef- 
fected to render the work more worthy of the time and 
thought which may be given to its perusal. 

The book aims, among other things, at two principal 
points : the Scriptural Idea of the Church ; and the ac- 
cord with this Idea of our own standards and of the 
best standard writers on the subject. 

1. In his appeal to Scripture, the Author has been 
influenced by a conviction that there has been, and still 
is, among us, a tendency to leave the Bible too much 
out of view in our controversial and theological discus- 
sions ; that unless this tendency can be brought within 
due bounds, we are in danger of reaching a state, in 

(3) 



4 PREFACE. 

which argument from the supreme, all-sufficient authority 
of the Word of God, in the style of the first Christian 
writers and apologists, will fall a virtually dead weight 
on the minds of both our clergy and our laity. He is 
sincerely desirous of doing what little he can towards 
lifting the Bible into that peerless honor which is its 
heaven-born right, as the only infallible rule of faith and 
practice in matters of religion. To the inspired Word 
nothing can give either a meaning, or a certainty, which 
lies not in its own sense ; and from that Word nothing 
but Inspiration can develop a meaning or a certainty, 
which the human mind, as addressed therein, and as 
guided by the ordinary teachings of the Holy Spirit, and 
by other accessible lights, is unable to discover. This 
is spoken of doctrines, or truths designed to govern moral 
and religious faith and practice. Testimony to facts, and 
determination of doctrines, are different things. So far 
as testimony may be needed in establishing such facts 
as the application of Baptism to infants, the change of 
the Day of Rest, the origin of Episcopacy with the 
Apostles, and the prevalence of the doctrine of the Trin- 
ity, or of any other doctrine, as a matter of history, we 
may receive that testimony, if good and sufficient in kind 
and amount, just as we receive any other good and suf- 
ficient human testimony ; regarding it as adequate to the 
reasonable proof of any fact possible under the govern- 



PREFACE. 5 

ment of God. But we cannot receive any exterior doc- 
uments, or authority, as necessary and sufficient to deter- 
mine, with infallible certainty, what are the otherwise 
undiscoverable doctrines of the Bible, without thereby 
elevating those documents, or that authority, to a cer- 
tainty and a value above those of the Bible itself. If, 
in matters of doctrinal truth, the Bible, under the ordi- 
nary teachings of the Holy Spirit and amid the light 
with which Divine Providence has surrounded it, cannot 
disclose its own sense to that mind of man which it 
addresses, then nothing lower than a new and clearer 
Revelation can be made an infallible interpreter of that 
sense. Such a revelation, if given, could never be safely 
received, unless accredited by miracles ; and, so accred- 
ited, that Revelation would at once take rank, for cer- 
tainty of authority and for eminence of value, above the 
ancient Scriptures. Hence the peril of receiving Tradi- 
tion in any form, as a necessary and infallible inter- 
preter of the doctrinal sense of the Bible. To be of 
any higher authority than ordinary testimony, of any 
higher value to interpretation than ordinary human helps, 
Tradition must necessarily take rank with Revelation ; 
and when used to fix on the doctrinal sense of the Bible 
an infallible interpretation not otherwise discoverable, it 
must necessarily take rank above the Bible. And yet, 
the Tradition of which so much is made can show no 



6 PREFACE. 

divinely-accrediting seals. The gravest suspicion may 
well be considered as resting on all pretensions to mir- 
acle since the Apostolic Age. 

The tendency of the Doctrine of Tradition, as a neces- 
sary and infallible interpreter of the Bible, may be seen 
in the celebrated "Essay on the Development of Chris- 
tian Doctrine," and in the resulting movement of its 
Author. The starting point of that Doctrine of Tradi- 
tion cannot be distinctly and intelligently assumed, and 
the line which flows from that point cannot be logically 
and honestly followed, without reaching an elevation of 
Authority and value above the Word of God. The 
Doctrine develops itself into Romanism, and its advo- 
cates into Romanists. If either the Church or an indi- 
vidual start from the point of Tradition, as above de- 
fined, the line of development, flowing from that point, 
will certainly lead its follower into Rome. The indi- 
vidual, indeed, may die before reaching that result, or 
various strong influences may hold him back, or turn 
him aside, from the advance of rectilinear logic and sym- 
pathy ; but nothing else can keep him from reaching 
and entering the gate that opens into the inclosure both 
of Romish theology and of Romish superstition. 

2. In his appeal to Standard Writers, the Author 
feels a confidence inspired by facts too plain to be de- 
nied. Even the advocates of the ultra-Episcopal theory 



PREFACE. 7 

of the Clmrcli admit that the testimony of the writers 
of tlie English Church in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth 
Centuries is decidedly in favor of the Definition of the 
Church given in the following pages. Indeed, that tes- 
timony is too explicit and harmonious to be disputed or 
set aside. The only way in which it can be met, is by 
ascribing that testimony to undue sympathy with the 
Continental Reformers, and to ignorance of the Value 
of certain Patristic testimony, the credit of which, it is 
said, has since been established. The plea, in substance, 
is, that the English and Continental Reformers were 
fellow-sufferers in the persecutions which Rome waged 
against her reforming opponents ; and that, therefore, 
it is no wonder if, in their strong feelings of affection 
for each other, and of dislike to the common persecutbr, 
the English Writers were led too far in admitting the 
claims of the Non-Episcopal Reformed bodies on the 
Continent to the character of Churches, or parts of the 
one true Church of Christ ; especially since, at the time 
of the Reformation, and in the Seventeenth Century, the 
Epistles of Ignatius were not free from a suspicion of 
their authenticity. This suspicion has since been re- 
moved, and the Ignatian Epistles are now available to 
the Episcopal argument in all the explicitness and 
strength of their testimony. Had those Epistles been 
in credit at the Reformation, as they are now, the Eng- 



8 PREFACE. 

lisli Reformers and their immediate successors would not 
have admitted, as they did, the Church character of the 
Continental Reformed Christians. A few words on both 
parts of this plea. 

(1.) As to the former part : If sympathy under com- 
mon persecution can make Protestants recognize each 
other as fellow-members of the Church of Christ, and 
Protestant Communions acknowledge each others claims 
to, at least, the substance of Church cTiaracter, there 
would be one blessing, if no more, in making such per- 
secutions perpetual. That the English Reformers sym- 
pathized tenderly with the Continental Reformed Chris- 
tians in their trials, there can be no doubt • but, that 
their sympathy blinded their judgments, or made them 
indifferent to the loss of the Episcopacy among their 
companions in suffering — this is a very slender pretense, 
opposed by abundant testimony to the contrary. The 
language of Bp. Hall expressed not his own sentiments 
alone, but those of others as well, when he thus wrote : 
•' Oh I How oft, and with what deep sighs, hath this 
most flourishing and happy Church of England wished 
that she might, with some of her own blood, have pur- 
chased unto her dearest sisters abroad the retention of 
this most ancient and every way best of Governments ;" 
that is, the retention of Church Government by the 
Episcopacy. 



PREFACE. 9 

Again : " It is not the variety of by-opinions that 
can exclude them from their part in the One Catholic 
Church and their just claim to the Communion of Saints. 
While they hold the solid and precious foundation, it is 
not the hay or stubble, which they lay upon it, that can 
set them off from God and His Church. But, in the 
meantime, it must be granted, that they have much to 
answer for to the God of peace and unity who are so 
addicted to their own conceits, and so indulgent to their 
own interest, as to raise and maintain new doctrines, 
and to set up new sects in the " Church of Christ " (in, 
not out of the Church), "varying from the common and 
received truths ; laboring to draw disciples after them, 
to the great distraction of souls and scandal of Chris- 
tianity." 

The English Reformers and their immediate success- 
ors were neither blind nor indifferent to the value and 
the obligation of Episcopacy. All their sympathy with 
their suffering brethren on the Continent could not have 
extorted from them an acknowledgment of Church char- 
acter without Episcopacy, had they not, as students of 
the Bible and antiquity, been convinced that Episcopacy 
however valuable and obligatory, is not, in such sense, 
essential to the being of the Church ; that, without it, 
the Church cannot exist. 

(2.) As to the latter part of the plea : It is true 



lo PREFACE. 

that the Ignatian Epistles are now admitted to be au- 
thentic 5 but it is not universally conceded that they are 
free from interpolations. Mr. Cureton, a learned Orien- 
talist in England, some time since published, and, by 
permission, dedicated to the Primate of the English 
Church, an interpretation of the Syriac version of three 
of those Epistles ; which, as there is said to be little 
reason for considering them abridgments, would show 
that the expurgated Greek copies in ordinary use, much 
as their former contents have been reduced, still contain 
many interpolations ; and, what is remarkable in this 
shorter Syriac version, almost all the strong passages on 
the subject of Episcopacy are wanting. Allowing, how- 
ever, that the common Greek copies are both authentic 
and genuine, or that Ignatius wrote all the strong pas- 
sages ascribed to him on the subject of Episcopacy, this 
makes him not a teacher of the ultra-Episcopal dogma. 
You search those Epistles in vain for that Idea of the 
Apostolical Succession which makes Ordination a Sacra- 
ment, transmitting not merely Office, but a certain mys- 
terious Sacerdotal Power, on the possession of which, 
from the Apostles' hands, through the line of Bishops 
alone, depend the validity and efficacy of all other sacra- 
ments and ministerial acts. Not one of the strong pas- 
sages referred to represents Ordination as the exclusive 
prerogative of Bishops ; not one speaks of Ordination 



PREFACE. II 

as conveying that mysterious Sacerdotal power. Allow- 
ing that he wrote all those passages, Ignatius was eyi- 
dently pressing the Episcopacy as simply the regularly- 
derived Government of the Church, a Government then 
universally received, but having no necessary affinity 
with the Idea of a Sacerdotal power, conveyed in Ordi- 
nation, and without which there can be no valid or effi- 
cacious ministerial act. Ignatius looked at Episcopacy 
as a Government for the Church, and not as a channel 
of Ordination for the transmission of any such myste- 
rious power. At least, his epistolary remains furnish no 
evidence of such ultra-Episcopacy. A single passage will 
serve to illustrate these remarks. To the Magnesians, 
he writes : " I exhort that ye study to do all things in 
a divine concord, your Bishop presiding in the place of 
God ; your Presbyters in the place of the Council of 
the Apostles ; and your Deacons, most dear to me, being 
entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ." This, it 
is needless to say, has nothing to do with Ordination, 
though it has much to do with Government. It is sim- 
ply an exhortation to concord in all things under the 
Presidency of Bishops with their associated Presbyters 
and Deacons ; that is, to a peaceful and Christian co- 
operation with their proper ecclesiastical governors in 
all things pertaining to the welfare of the Church. 
Similar passages are of frequent occurrence in his Epis- 



12 PREFACE. 

ties ; and they show liow little Ignatius had to do with 
the theory of transmitting Sacerdotal powers through 
Bishops alone.. 

It may be added that the English Reformers and 
writers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries were 
not unlearned in Patristics. Usher, at Oxford, in 1644, 
as well as Yossius, at Amsterdam, in 1646, was very 
learnedly engaged in expurgating these very Ignatian 
Epistles. The sacred scholars of England, in both cen- 
turies, studied the fathers deeply, and the Bible pro- 
foundly ; and thus, well versed in both, and, withal, 
skilled as few have since been in meeting all the turns 
and foiling all the movements of the Romish Argument 
on the subject of the Church, they adopted the only 
Church theory which can stand this side of an admis- 
sion of the entire claim of Rome. 

The English Reformation theory of the Church, giv- 
ing Episcopacy its due place of value and of obligation, 
yet leaving to all Christians an open ground of common 
membership in the Church of Christ, a ground on which 
they may all come together in the work of kindly draw- 
ing all hearts into one feeling of love, and of lovingly 
uniting all mouths in one profession of faith, has, as 
the Author believes, the Bible for its base and the mind 
of God for its origin. It is, perad venture, the only 
Window in the roof of our Ark through which light 



PREFACE. 13 

from Heaven can come in upon the darkness of those 
confusions and divisions into which the Church has 
fallen, and make manifest the secret of peace, love, and 
concord among all who name themselves of Christ. 
Cheerfully, therefore, and trustingly, does he again bid 
this little work go forth to do whatever God may make 
it the instrument of doing in the blessed work of filling 
the world with the spiritual reign of the Prince of 
Peace. 

Bow-Mount, 1866. 



CONTENTS 



•♦> 



PART I. 
THE CHURCH AS A SPIRITUAL BODY. 

CHAPTER I. 
Definitions of thb Church 19 

CHAPTER II. 
Testimony" of Scripture — Metaphors 39 

^CHAPTER III. 
Testimony of Scripture— Literal Texts 64 

CHAPTER IV. 

Distinction between Visible and Spiritual Church; with Testimony op 

Standards 96 

CHAPTER V. 
Testimony of Standard Writers 123 



PART II. 

THE CHURCH, AS A VISIBLE BODY. 

CHAPTER I. 
Scripture View of the Visible Church 149 

CHAPTER II. 

Our Standards, and Standard Writers on the Visible Church 174 

do) 



1 6 CONTENTS. 

PART III. 

WELL-BEING OP THE VISIBLE CHUEOH. 

CHAPTER I. 
On tde Ministrt 199 

CHAPTER II. 
Well-Being of the Visible Church— Government 221 

CHAPTER III. 
Well-Being of the Visible Church — Worship 251 

CHAPTER IV. 
Well-Being 07 THE VISIBLE Church— Schism 281 

CHAPTER V. 
Well-Being of THE VisiBLE Church— Unitt 305 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Church in Heaven 329 



PART I 



THE CHTJROH. AS A SPIRITUAL BODY 



THE LIVIN'G TEMPLE. 



CHAPTER I. 

DEFINITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 

XN selecting a subject for my first course of 
-^ Prelections in this Divinity School, I have en- 
deavored to find some topic not unrelated to your 
general course of study ; at the same time, not 
to trench on any Department, in which you have 
other and abler teachers ; and yet to light upon 
some matter, which my own previous pursuits may 
be supposed to qualify me, in some measure, to 
discuss. 

These views have, at length, induced me to in- 
vite your attention to the subject of The Church ; 
not, however, as seen under the aspect and within 
the department of Ecclesiastical Polity, nor as 
viewed amid the lights and affected by the inci- 
dents of Ecclesiastical History, but as presented to 
us, mainly, on the pages of the Bible. 

This, so far as the Christian world is concerned, 
has become one of the great subjects of the age. 
It is occupying profoundly the thoughts of almost 

(19) 



20 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

all thouglitful Christians ; and, perad venture, of 
many who are kept by their ponderings on it from 
becoming Christians. The Church ? What is it, 
where is it, and how may I know that I belong to 
it? These are queries which our times have 
revived with an interest unfelt for ages. After 
having been long put — ^not out of sight among 
Protestants, but — behind the main truths of Chris- 
tianity, they have been again brought forward, 
placed in the foreground, and made to demand a 
distinct answer. Such an answer they need at all 
times, but especially from the' teachers of the pres- 
ent generation. 

Nor is this question unrelated to your present 
general course of study. Christ and His Cross are, 
indeed, what, as preachers of the Gospel, you most 
need to know ; yet the Church, though not Christ, 
is His mystical Body ; though it cannot stand in 
Christ's stead, as a Saviour, yet it exists in the 
world as His Servant ; though it cannot make the 
Gospel which it is to preach, j^i it can and should 
preach the Gospel of which He is the center and 
the subject ; though it cannot give life through the 
sacraments, yet it does administer the sacraments 
of Him who giveth life through Himself When, 
therefore, we speak of the Church, provided we 
speak right things, we do, in truth, teach Christ ; 
we teach that in which He is intimately con- 



DEFINITIONS OF THE CHURCE. z\ 

cerned, that which holds intimate relationship with 
Him. 

Since, then, this question needs an answer, and 
since a right answer has so close relation to your 
chief study, let us proceed to seek for some clear, 
and, should God so favor us, some just conclusions 
on this great topic of the day. What is the 
Church, and who belong to it ? The Church, in its 
comprehension, with some thoughts as to what 
affects its well-being, is the theme on which we 
enter. 

1. The Romanist, then, defines the Church, in 
its Catholicism, universality, or comprehension, as 
that visible Society only, of professing Christians, 
which holds and submits to its one temporal, 
human head, the Pope, and which, under this head, 
has communion in all the so-called Sacraments of 
that Church. All other bodies called Christian, 
for whatever reason they may have been cut off", 
and however they may call themselves Churches, 
do not, in his view, belong to the One Catholic or 
Universal Church. To him the Greek, Armenian, 
Syrian, and Coptic, the English and American 
Episcopal, with all other Protestant Bodies — 
planted, as these communities are, with all their 
millions, from end to end of the earth — though 
they may retain some portions of Christian truth, 
and though many of them, as individuals, may 



22 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

peradventure be saved, yet, are not Churches, nor 
do they belong to the One Catholic Church in the 
World. They are but heretical or schismatical 
Sects, and have neither part nor lot in the One 
true Church. To him, the Eoman communion 
embraces this Church, '* Totus^ teres^ atque 
TotundusV 

2. Again, the Exclusive Episcopalian, eschew- 
ing, as far as he may, the name of Protestant, 
adopts a view of the Church somewhat more com- 
prehensive. He defines the Church as that visible 
Society of professing Christians which holds and 
submits to an Episcopal ministry, and has a com- 
mon union in Sacraments Episcopally administered. 
This definition includes, within the Catholic pale, 
the Eomish, Greek, and other Oriental Churches, 
together with the English, American, and other 
Episcopal bodies. All these, it is admitted, exist 
as separate ecclesiastical organizations ; and so 
long as they neither hold free intercommunion, nor 
acknowledge one visible unity, their separation, 
though it leaves them still within the Catholic pale, 
is yet one of the sorest and most to be deprecated 
of evils ; and its removal is to be sought as one 
of the highest attainable blessings. But, at this 
point, the limit of Catholicism with this class of 
definers is reached. According to them, all Pro- 
testant, or other religious bodies, not Episcopally 



DEFINITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 



23 



constituted, however numerous, full of spiritual 
life, and active in spreading the knowledge of 
Christ and the blessings of Christianity to the ends 
of the earth, do not belong to the Church. They 
may hold much Christian truth ; and, as individu- 
als, many of them may be saved ; but they are not 
Churches, nor parts of the Church ; they are but 
heretical or schismatical sects, and their existence 
as such is an evil of the gravest, most afflictive 
magnitude. The Churches labor should be to re- 
absorb them into herself, while, at the same time, 
seeking to recover her own lost visible unity. Sub- 
mission to a universal Episcopacy, claiming the 
supernaturally derived power of conveying the 
Holy Ghost, and the real Body and blood of Christ, 
in ordination and in sacraments, is, upon this the- 
ory, the indispensable requisite, not only to the 
integrity and perfectness, but to the very existence, 
of the Church. 

3. And now, to those, who cannot adopt, as their 
own, either of the foregoing definitions of the 
Church, — and, for one, I acknowledge myself of 
this class — it remains to seek a third. In seeking 
this third definition, however, which I hope to make 
exhaustive, I propose to approach it, not directly, 
but through some preparatory views, taken from 
Scriptural points of observation. 

1. And first, — ^The design of God, in the revela- 



24 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

tion of His will and in the Incarnation of His Son, 
is to save men from sin, and to make them partak- 
ers of eternal life. This design, as realized in the 
sinner, requires a thorough reconciliation to his 
Heavenly Sovereign, on the simple terms of '' Re- 
pentance toward God and faith toward our Lord 
Jesus Chrisf Acts, 20 : 21 — an individual and 
hearty concurrence in the Divine counsel of Re- 
demption. Every person thus reconciled, is said 
to be "justified by faith ; " and hath " peace with 
God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 5 : L 
Every one, thus justified, is "renewed in the spirit 
of his mind,'^ lives " a godly life," grows in holi- 
ness, and has, even on earth, the beginning of the 
true life eternal. This eternal life now " abideth 
in him ; " he has already entered on the foretaste 
of his salvation. Hence the words of Christ : " He 
that heareth my word, and belie veth on Him that 
sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come 
into condemnation ; but is passed *' — passed already 
— " from death unto life." John, 5 : 24. This as- 
surance, in its original, essential truth, is tied to 
no observance of outward institutions. It brings 
to view nothing but the Saviour and the sinner ; 
the Saviour's word and the sinner's faith ; that faith 
which is always followed by repentance and holi- 
ness. It is an assurance, based essentially on an 
inner transaction between Christ and the true be- 



DEFINITIONS OF THE CHURGE. 25 

liever. Wherever the Word goes and is received 
into the faith of the heart, there is the basis of this 
Divine assurance, "he is passed from death unto 
life." This is the reason, not merely why there 
shall be, but why there "is, joy in the presence of 
the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." 
His repentance is the first step out of that faith 
which taketh hold on eternal life. The angels see 
in it another victory for Christ ; another soul al- 
ready ^' passed from death unto life." 

The Scriptures abound in this peculiar teaching — 
the assurance of salvation to every one, be his out- 
ward circumstances what they may ; who truly be- 
lieves in Christ. " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and thou shalt be saved." Acts, 16 : 31. " Christ 
is the end of the law for righteousness to every one 
that believeth." "There is no difference between 
the Jew and the Grreek," the most and the least 
privileged ; " for the same Lord over all is rich 
unto all that call upon Him; for whosoever 
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be 
saved." Rom. 10 : 4, 12, 13. Whosoever calleth 
in that faith, which " cometh by hearing," as hear- 
ing " cometh by the word of Grod,'' shall be saved. 
Whosoever. It is impossible to find a man with 
this faith under such peculiar circumstances as to 
invalidate the truth of this assurance — "he shall 
be saved." The eternal Father hath so bound 



26 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

Himself to this, that He would not be ''just" were 
He not also " the justifier of him that believe th in 
Jesus, '^ wherever and whenever this believer may 
be found. Both " the Law and the Prophets/' as 
well as the Gospel, concur in the ''witness" that 
' ' the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ, 
is unto all and upon all them that believe." Eom. 3 : 
21, 22, 26. As '^ all have sinned " and are alike in 
that, so, among those who have this faith, " there 
is no difference." Nothing can make a difference 
in favor of one and against another, in whom this 
faith dwelieth. " Jesus said, I am the Bread of 
Life ; he that cometh to me " — whoever he may be, 
and whatever his outward lot — "he that cometh 
to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth 
on me shall never thirst." John, 6 : 35. " I am 
the resurrection and the life : he that believeth in 
me, though he were ' dead yet shall he live ; and 
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
die." John, 11 : 25, 26. " For God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life." John, 3 : 16. 

There, Christian student, is the Gospel in 
element, in its simple, yet all-comprehending base. 
We must convict the solemn Trinity of falsehood 
before we can take eternal life from him that truly 
believes in Jesus Christ. It matters not by what 



DEFINITIONS OF THE CHVRGH. 27 

name he is called, or in what connection he is 
found, if he have this faith in his heart, whole and 
uncorrupt, he hath eternal life ; and no man can 
take from him that ''gift of Grod." 

And now, why does the Bible make so much of 
this faith ? Ts it because this alone constitutes the 
Christian character ? No : but because this faith 
cannot be alone in that character. It is, under the 
Spirit, the parent of all holy graces. This truth, 
in former times, drew from that ''staunch 
churchman," Bishop Hall, the exclamation: " 
the grace of faith ! justly represented to us by St. 
Paul, above all other graces, incident unto the soul, 
as that which, if not alone, chiefly transacts all the 
main affairs tending to salvation. For faith is the 
quickening grace, the directing grace, the protecting 
grace, the establishing grace, the justifying grace, 
the sanctifying and purifying grace. Faith is the 
grace which assents to, apprehends, applies, appro- 
priates Christ ; and, hereupon, it is the uniting 
grace ; and, which comprehends all, the saving 
grace.'^ 

In the texts thus far cited, we see the simple, 
essential requisites to salvation under the Gospel ; 
those without which no man, to whom the Gospel 
comes, can be saved j and with which any man will 
be saved. 

2. We now take another step. Every one, in 



28 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

whom the required faith is found, has a direct and 
personal union with Christ ; so that he draws his 
spiritual life, not by succession, nor by transmis- 
sion from any other believer, but immediately 
from the Saviour Himself. Nothing, however thin, 
intervenes between the two. By faith the believer 
is "in Christ;" and by the same faith Christ 
'' dwells '^ in the believer's ''heart." Eph. 3 : 17. 
This mystic union between Christ and each individ- 
ual Christian is as close and perfect, as though 
Christ and each individual were the only ones in 
all the world concerned in that union. As a foun- 
dation, Christ is as long as the age of grace, and as 
broad as the realm of sin ; so that every true be- 
liever touches, immediately and for himself, that on 
which he is builded. In this peculiar union there 
is, not a miraculous impartation of the divine sub- 
stance, but a real derivation of the divine life ; and 
faith is the grace, by which the heavenly derivation 
is realized. Faith brings the soul to the spring- 
head of that life in Christ. Faith drinks of the 
"■ living water " which He gives. " Whosoever 
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall 
never thirst, but the water that I shall give him 
shall be in him a well of water springing up into 
everlasting life." John, 4 : 14. ''I am the Vine; 
ye are the branches ; he that abideth in me and I 
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." John, 



DEFINITIONS OF THE CHVRCH. 29 

15 : 5. "If any man be in Christ, lie is a new 
creature." 2 Cor. 5:17. " That Christ may dwell 
in your hearts by faith." Eph. 3 : 17. " Ye are 
not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the 
Spirit of God dwell in you : now if any man have 
not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."' Eom. 
8:9. " Your life is hid with Christ in God." Col. 
3 : 3. He that, Avith an appropriating faith, '' eat- 
eth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in 
me and I in him." John, 6 : b^. These are some 
of the passages in which this sacred union is indi- 
cated ; and they show that, while Christ holds this 
union with all who truly believe in Him, He still 
holds it with each separately and severally. Each 
single Christian holds this living connection and 
communion with the Saviour as immediately and 
as closely, and draws life therefrom as abundantly 
and as perfectingly, as though himself and the Sa- 
viour were the only beings concerned in the divine 
affinity. 

3. We have thus seen what it is that essentially 
characterizes the true Christian, and what is the 
relation which he sustains with Christ. We now 
take one further stej). There are, then, in the 
world, as there have been from the beginning, and 
will be to the end, a steadily growing, and at length 
a very great company of human beings, sustaining 
the character and the relations which I have just 



3c 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



explained ; the character of true believers in Christ, 
and the relation of a holy, individual union with 
Christ. These, as represented in the Bible, and as 
found in fact, are an exceedingly "peculiar peo- 
ple." There are none like them in all the world. 
In some outward respects, they seem like common 
men ; but in the depths of their being, they are 
quite unlike all others. They are stamped with 
the lineaments and features of quite another char- 
acter. If what has been wrought within could be 
laid open to the eye of sense, they would at once 
be known from other men all over the earth and 
throughout all heaven. Gathered from whatever 
nation or kindred, and marked by whatever pecu- 
liarities or inequalities, they would yet be found in 
their main characteristics alike ; shaped by the 
same divine hahd, stamped with the same spiritual 
features, passing through the same general experi- 
ence, belonging to the same great company, and 
tending to the same sublime destiny. 

Now, this exceedingly "peculiar people'' are 
found, not exclusively within the lines of any one 
Christian community, but, in greater or less num- 
bers, within the limits of all : some, doubtless, even 
among the most corrupt of those communities ; and 
multitudes among those which rise nearest to prim- 
itive purity. Here, then, comes into view a very 
remarkable fact. A large number of these " pecu- 



DEFINITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 



3' 



liar people " are found in organized Christian com- 
munities, whicli neither submit to one supreme, 
temporal, human head — the Pope, nor receive into 
their organizations an Episcopal ministry and sac- 
raments. They are known by various human 
names ; but, in character and relation, they belong 
to that same *' peculiar people " who have been 
described. They have all the lineaments and fea- 
tures, all the views and experience, of that people ; 
everything that can mark them as belonging to the 
same spiritual race. Of this there is and can be 
no question. If the true, though hidden characters 
and relations of the whole holy company were laid 
open, this portion of them would be seen, before 
earth and heaven, to be identical with all the rest. 
What, then, is the relation, which, as individuals, 
and as organized bodies, these acknowledged Chris- 
tians, thus destitute of the Episcopacy, bear to the 
Church of Christ ? 

This question is important. I have no undue 
sympathy with those who refuse, or fail, to receive 
an Episcopal ministry. Still, their existence in 
such considerable numbers, and with such undeni- 
able evidences of identity with the '' peculiar peo- 
ple," is a grave and weighty fact, of which we must 
in some way dispose. Again, therefore, I ask : 
what relation do these Christians and Christian 
communities bear to the Church ? This question is 



32 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

important, chiefly, from the consideration that, if 
they belong to the Church, then a third definition 
of the Church, different from either of the former, 
becomes indispensably necessary. Do these Chris- 
tians, then, individually and in their organizations, 
belong to the Church? The advocates of both 
the previous definitions answer. No. I am con- 
strained to answer, Yes. My reason for this 
answer however, must, for the present, be brief. 

Either, then, they belong to the Church, or, in 
so far as they are Christians, they are saved with- 
out belonging to the Church. Now, whether God 
ever saves men where Christ is unknown, or when 
it is impossible to confess Him before men, it is not 
here necessary to inquire. Of this, however, we 
may "be sure : that, where the Gospel is preached, 
where the Holy Spirit is given to apply that Gos- 
pel, where Christ is thus fully made known, and 
where men have an opportunity to confess Him 
before their fellow men — there God saves no man 
but in His one, appointed way, on the terms of His 
one, unchangeable covenant of grace, and as a mem- 
ber of His one, true Church. Under the condi- 
tions here assigned, the doctrine is strictly true, 
"' Out of the Church is no salvation." It is only when 
a false conception of the Church is entertained, 
only when some particular ecclesiastical organiza- 
tion arrogates to itself exclusively the style and 



DEFiyiTWNS OF THE CHURCK t,-^ 

prerogatives of the Church, that the doctrine be- 
comes not only false, but impious. When the word 
Church is rightly understood, and is used within 
the conditions just named, the doctrine is both true 
and precious : " Out of the Church is no salvation." 
But, the Christians of whom we speak obtain sal- 
vation ; and they are saved within the specified 
conditions ; they are saved by means of the Gos- 
pel, through the knowledge of Christ, by the 
renewing of the Holy Ghost, and with a confession 
of Christ and His truth before men. They are 
saved as all other Christians are saved. They, 
therefore, belong to the Church. 

If, by the opposite opinion, it be meant, that 
though saved, yet they are not members of the 
Church in the sense of either of the two definitions 
already given, this is but saying that they are 
neither Romanists nor Episcopalians : but, if it be 
meant that though saved, yet they are not mem- 
bers of the Church in any sense, then we ask : 
what essential necessity for a Church can be 
shown? If, from age to age, such myriads are 
saved, where the full light of Christ is shining, and 
where the rich gifts of the Spirit are bestowed, 
while yet they belong not to the Church, then the 
Church, instead of being exalted, and shown to be 
divinely useful, is degraded and shown to be of no 
worth. Men may be saved outside as well as with- 
3 



34 



THE LIVING TEMPLE, 



in its enclosure ; without as well as witli its name. 
The Church, as to her specitic difference, is brought 
down to the rank of a mere keeper of manuscripts, 
and regulator of forms. All higher attributes and 
privileges, all more spiritual functions and influen- 
ces, she merely shares in common with a body of 
Christians who belong not to her communion. The 
moment we say that these higher attributes and 
privileges, these more spiritual functions and influ- 
ences, whereby Christian men are saved, are not 
partially and accidentally, but wholly, and in Grod's 
design, enjoyed by the Church (and this is true 
doctrine) — ^the moment we take this position we 
compel ourselves to admit that these other Chris- 
tians, who share these attributes and privileges, 
these functions and influences, and are saved there- 
by, belong to the Church. There is no way of 
evading this conclusion but by admitting that the 
Church merely shares the highest and richest 
means of salvation with individuals and communi- 
ties who are no part of the Church. 

But, if these Christians belong to the Church, 
then, clearly, so far as its comprehension is con- 
cerned, neither of the definitions which have been 
given is right, and we are compelled to seek for a 
third. What, then, is this third, this exhaustively 
complete definition of the Church ? 

The answer comes from what has already been 



DEFINITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 35 

said. Without denying, but rather distinctly hold- 
ing, that in one sense the word Church may, 
with strict propriety, be applied to a particular 
ecclesiastical organization, and actually is so ap- 
plied in the Bible, in history, and in common usage, 
it is nevertheless plain that what has thus far been 
said leads directly to this definition : the Church, in 
its largest, highest sense, is that great company of 
true believers in Christ, who hold His truth, in the 
main, whole and uncorrupt, and who, by His sole 
divine power and agency, are saved from sin and 
everlasting death. In this its largest, highest sense, 
the Church is, precisely, the whole company of 
that '' peculiar people," whose character and rela- 
tion to Christ have already been described. This 
great company exists both in heaven and upon 
earth. It is gathered and to be gathered from the 
present, from the past, and from all coming ages. 
This, with Bishop Taylor, I understand to be the 
sense of that article in the Creed, " the holy Catho- 
lic Church, the communion of saints." The body, 
thus named in the Creed, is not merely in name, 
but in reality, in the truth of words, and in the 
sight of God, a holy Church, literally a " communion 
of saints." It comprises all, of whatever age or 
country, of whatever name or connection, who hold 
the truth of Christ, in the main, whole and uncorrupt, 
and are saved by Him from sin and everlasting 



36 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

death. It is a " communion of saints, '^ or of those holy 
ones, who have a common union with Christ in His 
truth. His life and His salvation. These alone are 
His spiritual Body, and He alone is their Head. 
They only are His true Temple, and this Temple 
only is filled, always and truly, with His divine 
and sanctifying presence. 

Nor is this body, thus holy, merely called a 
Church : as if, by a figure of rhetoric, it were hon- 
ored with a name really belonging to something 
else, to which it is related ; but it is the Church in 
its largest, highest sense. Christ first constituted 
and has ever since enlarged this Church, by gath- 
ering and ''adding to it those who are saved;" 
(rovo oGi^ofievovay Acts, 2: 47. The Saviour and 
the saved are the fundamental elements, as well 
as the finished development, of His Church. 

Whether the Church in this highest sense is iho^ 
original, and gives its name to the Church, in its 
lower aspect, as a visible society ; or, whether the 
latter first received the name, it is not necessary 
to decide ; although high authorities are not want- 
ing for the opinion that the name belongs primarily 
to the higher embodiment. Thus, Bishop Taylor, 
distinguishing ''God's sense " from what he calls 
"man's sense" of the term Church, says that the 
former is " the true, proper and primary meaning." 
The eminent Jackson also declares that this is 



DEFimriONS OF THE GHTIRGH. 37 

the prime sense of the term, ' Catholic Church.' " 
It is enough, however, for us to know that the 
grand company of *' the saved " are — not by a fig- 
ure of speech, but — in verity, a Church; in its 
most important sense, the Church of Christ. 

The difference between this idea of the Church 
and both the previous definitions of it which have 
been given, will be seen by observing that the 
Church is not, in itself, an agent in saving men, 
but the whole company of men saved in union with 
Christ their Saviour. The difference is essential. 
The Church doubtless, uses means for saving men. 
This, however, makes not the Church, in itself, an 
agent in saving men, any more than medicine, in 
the hands of a physician, makes the physician him- 
self a medicine, or constitutes him the power which 
gives that medicine its effect in healing the sick. 
To make the Word and sacraments to be ''of the 
essence '' of the Church, prepares the way for mak- 
ing the Church itself, in a sense co-ordinate with 
Christ, an agent in saving men. In its true idea, 
the Church is just the whole company of "the 
saved,'^ in union with Christ, the Saviour. Christ 
and the company of those who live in Him by 
faith, and in whom He lives through faith — this is 
the real essence of the Church ; that without 
which no Church can exist ; that, with which the 
Church cannot but exist. The importance of keep- 
ing this idea in mind cannot well be overrated. 



38 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

Thus far, we have merely been seeking a defini- 
tion of the Church in its largest comprehension. 
Hereafter, we hope to show that this definition is 
sustained by the Scriptures and by our own stand- 
ards ; after which we will attend to that sense of 
the term, which brings before us the Church as a 
visible organized society. 

For the present, I close with a single inquiry : 
Do we, each for himself, belong to the Church of 
"the saved?" This question touches not merely 
outward relations. It is not settled hj mere mem- 
bership in a visible ecclesiastical organization. Do 
we belong to that "peculiar people^' described? 
We must, or we do not belong to Christ, and can- 
not be saved by Him. We must be in Him by 
faith, and by faith draw life directly from Him. If 
His in an external sense only, all the names, 
badges and privileges of our Christian lot will be 
but so many aggravations of our guilt when we 
come to stand before God ; only so many splendid 
patches on the darJi garment of our shame ; like 
the painted flames on the vesture of victims at an 
auto dafe ; enhancing by the very strangeness of 
their contrast, the ignominy and the miserj^ with 
which we shall be inwardlj^ consumed. 

God give us all a discerning eye, and a believ- 
ing heart ; that, being " in Christ" here, we may 
hereafter be " found of Him in peace, without spot 
and blameless." 



CHAPTER 11. 

TESTIMONY OF SCEIPTURE. METAPHORS. 

npHE Church Universal, as described in the lan- 
-*- guage of the Creed, is '' the holy Catholic 
Church, the communion of saints." It is the great 
company of those, who have a common union with 
Christ by faith, who hold to Him as their sole 
Head, and to His Truth, in the main, whole and 
uncorrupt ; and who, by His sole power and 
agency, are saved from sin, and made partakers 
of eternal life. This idea of the Church, so far as 
it was brought out in the first chapter, was drawn 
from the language of the Bible, descriptive of the 
true Christian and of his individual relation to 
Christ. 

But, it will be asked, is there any thing in the 
Bible, which authorizes us to call this great com- 
pany of " the saved " by the name of the Church ? 
Are there any Scriptures, intentionally describing 
the Church itself, which contain the basis of the 
idea just presented ? 

(39) 



40 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



This question will lead me to an examination of 
two sets of passages, the true sense of which, as I 
apprehend, will show that the definition of the 
Church which I have given, is sustained by the 
teaching of the inspired Word. Of these passages, 
the one set presents the Church under certain 
metaphors ; the other, under its own proper name. 



First, then, passages which present the Church 
under certain metaphors. 

1. In the tenth chapter of the Gospel according 
to John, Christ describes the Church under the 
metaphor of a '' fold." In this figure, the relation 
between Himself and His people, is that of the 
shepherd and his " flock.'' The following is some 
of the language, which He employs in carrying out 
the figure. "He that entereth not by the door 
into the sheepfold, the same is a thief and robber." 
"I am the door : by me if any man enter in he 
shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find 
pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal and 
to kill, and to destroy ; I am come that they might 
have life, and that they might have it more abund- 
antly. I am the good Shepherd ; the good Shep- 
herd giveth his life for the sheep.'' '' And other 
sheep I have, which are not of this fold ; them also 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE, 41 

I must bring ; and they shall hear my voice, and 
there shall be one flock and one shepherd."* " My 
sheep hear my voice, and I know them^ and they 
follow me ; and I give unto them eternal life and 
they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck 
them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them 
me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck 
them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father 
are one." John, x. passim, 

Now, here, under this metaphor of a fold, we 
have a description of the church ; for, that this 
FOLD and the church are identical is not and can- 
not be doubted. Analogoas metaphors, as we shall 
see, decide this point. Christ^s fold is the church. 
Of whom, then, does this fold, or church, consist ? 
Of none but the Shepherd and His flock ; rroiiivr} • of 
those and those only, who " enter in " by Christ 
and are '' saved ; " who " hear His voice and fol- 
low Him ;" to whom He " gives eternal life " and 
who "shall never perish." The Fold, if explained 
separately, as that which encloses both the Shep- 
herd and His Flock, may be regarded as the secu- 
rities of that fixed and unchangeable covenant .of 

* There is an ambiguity in our translation of this passage. As we have 
it, it is — " other sheep I have, which are not of this fold {avTifja), them also 
I must bring, etc.," " and there shall be one fold {7tol/j,vt}), and one shepherd." 
Our translators have wrongly rendered two distinct words by one and the 
same, avl^ is the fold, which encloses : noifivri is the flock which is en- 
closed I have removed the ambiguity in my use of the passage. 



42 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

grace within which the whole sacred corapany, in 
their spiritual union with Christ, are safely held : 
but the whole figure, interpreted together, the Fold 
and those whom it contains, represents, simply, the 
Church of Christ ; both that part which had been 
saved before His advent, and that which was after- 
wards to be saved. " Other sheep," says Christ, '*I 
have, which are not of this fold ; them also I must 
bring, and they shall hear my voice ; and there 
shall be one flock and one shepherd." That is : 
" My sheep among the Gentiles, as well as among 
the Jews, are not yet actually gathered in ; but they 
are mine, and gathered in they shall be. The Flock 
is one, and the Shepherd one ; and when the gath- 
ering is ended, eternity shall receive the whole 
to the fullness of my salvation." 

In this passage, the metaphoric fold clearly 
means the whole unfolded flock, who are to be 
saved from first to last, under the security of the 
eternal covenant of grace, in union with Christ, 
their only and divine Head. There is no reason, 
either in the occasion of Christ's speaking, or in 
the language which He uses, to show that He is 
describing a mixed and semi-worldly company of 
professed believers. On the contrary, though 
there was such a company, and though He some- 
times confessedly describes it, yet both the occa- 
sion and the language here show that He was 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 43 

intentionally describing a different company, simply 
the whole company of " the saved.*' He was look- 
ing far above and beyond the imperfect and the 
temporal condition of His kingdom. Indeed, He 
expressly distinguishes between this and the fold 
of which He was speaking. So far as there was 
then a visible and mixed Church on earth, the 
Jews with whom He was discoursing belonged to 
it : and yet. He told them, unequivocally, that they 
did not belong to His Fold, the Church which He 
then had in His eye. " But, ye believe not," said 
He, "because ye are not of my sheep, as I said 
unto you." This plainly settles the question. 
Christ was intentionally discriminating between 
the mixed, visible Church in the world, and that 
Church, which is His fold ; His Church, in its 
highest, largest sense. 

2. In the third chapter of his Epistle to the 
Ephesians, St. Paul presents the Church under the 
metaphor of a Family. " For this cause I bow my 
knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
of whom the whole Family in Heaven and earth 
is named, that He would grant you, according to 
the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with 
might by His Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ 
may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being- 
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to com- 
prehend, with all saints, what is the breadth, and 



44 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

length, and depth, and height ; and to know the 
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge ; that ye 
might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, 
unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly, 
above all that we ask or think, according to the 
power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in 
the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, 
world without end.'' Eph. 3 : 14-21. 

It needs little or no comment to show that the 
Family here mentioned is the Church, in its largest, 
highest sense. It is the Church, because, in the 
latter part of the passage, it is expressly called 
so ; for there is no reason to suppose that, by Fam- 
ily, in the former part of the passage, the Apostle 
means one company, and by Church, in the latter 
part, another and a different. Evidently, the two 
are one and the same company. This Family, then, 
is the Church. And it is, as evidentl}^, the Church 
in its largest, highest sense ; " the Holy Catholic 
Church, the Communion of Saints ;'' the one spir- 
itual Household of faith ; the whole company of 
''the saved," whose only Head is Christ. This 
appears, not only from the Apostle's prayer, " that 
Christ may dwell in the hearts " of its members 
"■ by faith ;" that, " being rooted and grounded in 
love, they may be able to comprehend, with all 
saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, 
and height ; and to know the love of Christ which 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE, 45 

passetli knowledge;'^ and ''that they might be 
filled with all the fullness of God " — for this prayer 
might be offered in behalf of any company — but, 
from the language which he uses in describing the 
sacred Household. It is not only a Family, but 
"the whole family" named of Christ, "in 
Heayeis^ and Earth." The very terms show that 
he was not speaking of the limited, mixed, semi- 
worldly Church of this life. He was describing 
the whole Famity of Christ, part in HeaYcn and 
part on earth ; and the part on earth homogeneous 
with the part in HeaYen, and finally to become 
one with the sacred whole. Such being his descrip- 
tion of this Family, the prayer which he offered 
for its members becomes most impressiYcly appro- 
priate. It shows that his mind was lifted far aboYe 
and beyond the temporal, the imperfect, and the 
mixed, and was realizing that incomparably 
grander, purer, and better thing — the whole com- 
pany "of the saved," from the beginning to the 
end of time, who are to Uyc together in glory for- 
ever. And the Idea which thus swelled his mind 
in describing the Family, continued to fill his 
thoughts when he came to call it the Church. 
Hence, he terms it "the Church in Christ Jesus " 

{jxi enKATjola ev Xptorio Irjaov'j^ in which God is tO be 

glorified " throughout all ages, world without end," 
all ages, past, present, and to come. The Family 



46 THE LIYma TEMPLE. 

and the Church, here, are connatural and com- 
mensurate ; and neither of them can be identified 
with, and limited by, the imperfect and mixed 
company called the Church, in this world. 

3. In the twenty-first chapter of the Book of 
Revelation, John presents the Church under the 
metaphor of a Bride. " Come hither," says the 
Angel of the Vision, "and I will show thee the 
Bride, the Lamb's wife." Rev. 21 : 9. 

This Bride, the Lamb's wife, is confessedly the 
Church of Christ. Of whom, then, do its mem- 
bers consist ? This question is answered near the 
close of the chapter, where, while the sense is the 
same, the metaphor has been changed for that of a 
"City." "The nations of them that are saved 
shall walk in the light of it." "And there shall 
in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, 
neither that worketh abomination or a lie ; but 
they which are written in the Lamb's Book of 
Life." 

This vision is, by many, though not by all, sup- 
posed to represent the finished state of the Church 
in Heaven ; inasmuch as "the Bride," or " Great 
City, the Holy Jerusalem," was shown, "descend- 
ing out of heaven from God, having the glory of 
God." Suppose, then, for the sake of the suppo- 
sition, that the object of the vision was to exhibit 
the Church in its heavenly state ; this would not 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 47 

destroy the force of the metaphor in its application 
to our subject ; for the Church becomes " the Bride, 
the Lamb^s wife," on earth ; and it is only because 
she is espoused to Him on earth that the marriage 
will finally be solemnized in Heaven. Hence the 
Apostle says of the marriage union between hus- 
band and wife, "This is a great mystery, but I 
speak concerning Christ and the Church." Eph. 5 : 
32. That is : the ordinance of human marriage is a 
mystic symbol of the divine union existing between 
Christ and the Church. This union has existed 
from the beginning, and the Church has been and 
will be '' the Beide, the Lamb's wife," through all 
time as well as throuorh all eternitv. 

That this relation exists on earth is evident 
from the close of the chapter quoted, Rev. 21 : 27, 
where it is said, '' none shall enter into it," none 
shall be recognized as members of this Beide, " but 
they which are written in the Lamb's Book of 
Life." When are they written in that Book ? On 
Earth and in Time, or nowhere and never? The 
Seventy rejoiced that "the devils were subject 
unto them." Christ bade them, " rather rejoice 
because your names are written in Heaven" — "are 
written," not "shall be wrtten," Had they not been 
so written on earth, their names would never have 
been found on the Register of Life in Heaven. 
And this is as true of every Christian as it was of 



48 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

the Seventy. Even then, on the supposition that 
the metaphoric Bride means the Church in its 
finally perfected state, yet none belong to it but 
those who, while on earth, have their names writ- 
ten in Heaven. The relation between the Divine 
Bridegroom and His holy Bride is formed in this 
world, and is only to be publicly solemnized in the 
world to come. Still more definitive of the ques- 
tion is the metaphor on its true construction, that 
''the Bride, the Lamb's Wife,'' is a figure of the 
Church on earth, as well as in Heaven. In this 
light, the metaphor solves all doubt. The Bride, 
the Church of Christ, in its largest, highest sense, 
is composed exclusively of ''the saved," of those 
who, on earth, have their names "written in the 
Lamb's Book of Life ;" His Book of Life. No 
spiritually dead soul is ever betrothed to the Di- 
vinely living Saviour. 

To this view it may, indeed, be objected that, in 
the Old Testament, God is said to have married 
the whole country and people of Israel— Isa. 62 : 
4, 5 ; that among them were multitudes of the 
most ungodly, and that therefore, under the New 
Testament, the term Bride may be considered as 
designating the Church in its visible, mixed, and 
imperfect state. To this, however, I reply : it is 
by no means certain that the language referred to 
designates the relation between God and the 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 49 

strangely mixed visible Israel. But, even if we 
were to allovf this, it would make nothing against 
the interpretation now given of the metaphoric 
Bride in the Revelation. The relation between 
God and the mixed visible Israel of old was not a 
type of the mixed visible Christian Israel. The 
Church of the Old Testament was not a type of 
the Church of the New. They were one and the 
same Church, under different Dispensations ; and 
both, as visible and mixed, were but signs and 
means of God's relation to the true spiritual Israel, 
the true spiritual Church of Christ ; so that the 
real Bride, the real Church, for which we seek, 
remains the same, the whole company of " the 
saved,*' in union with the living Saviour. The 
Type of a thing may be imperfect, while the Anti- 
type, the thing typified, is perfect. The typic 
Bride of the old Testament turned adulteress, and 
was put away. The typic Bride of the New has 
too often followed her example and shared her 
disgrace. The True Bride is never unfaithful. 
She is betrothed for eternity. 

4. In the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the 
Ephesians, the Church is presented under the met- 
aphor of a BODY. Upon this body various gifts 
were bestowed " for the perfecting of the saints, 
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the 
BODY of Christ ; till we all come, in the unity of 
4 



50 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, un- 
to a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of 
the fullness of Christ ;" — that — " speaking the truth 
in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, 
which is the head, Christ ; from whom the whole 
BODY, fitly joined together, and compacted by that 
which every joint supplieth according to the effect- 
ual working, in the measure of every part maketh 
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in 
love." Eph. 4 ; 12-16. 

This is exceedingly strong language. It speaks 
of saints who are to grow up into the edified " body 
of Christ," unto a divine " unity," unto "a perfect 
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness 
of Christ." They are to grow up into Him "in all 
things," as their ^'head." From Him, "the whole 
body," every part and member, is to be "fitly 
joined and compacted together." In this divinely 
vital fitting, joining and compacting, " every joint 
supplieth " its due proportion. In this supply, 
there is an " effectual working," a divine energy. 
And, through this effectual working, there is to be 
made " a proportional increase of the body in 
every single part." This last expression gives the 
true force of the language in the original. 

Now, the BODY, described in this passage, is con- 
fessedly the Church. And it is certainly a Church, 
every joint, limb, ligament and function of which, 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 



51 



without any indicated exception, is to grow into, 
and from Christ by an inward, divine energy, and 
is to be a spiritually vitalized part of that fitly 
joined and compacted body, which carries the life of 
Christ in every portion, from the crown of the head 
to the soles of the feet. It is that Church, which, 
when the sacred body is at length completed by 
the addition of its last member, is to become "a 
perfect man," in its analogy with a perfect human 
body and soul ; " a perfect man ;" its head, Christ ; 
and its body, all His glorified members ; in short, 
"the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
Christ/' 

Is it possible, then, to understand, by the Body, 
thus described and characterized, the merely local, 
visible Church, organized at Ephesus, to which this 
Epistle was confessedly addressed, and which, as a 
local organization, doubtless shared in the spiritual 
gifts shed on the Church in its largest, highest 
sense ? Is it not manifest, from the language used, 
from the description elaborated, that St. Paul had 
risen far above, and passed far beyond, the local 
and probably mixed organization at Ephesus, and 
was setting before them that unspeakably diviner 
thing, the one, universal, glorious Body of Christ, 
of which Ephesus, if not faithless, hypocritical, or 
self-deceived, might become, with all saints, glori- 
fied members ? For one, I feel it would be doing 



52 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

violence to all spiritual understanding to take such 
language from the lips of an inspired Apostle, and 
consider it as intentionally describing the locally 
organized and mixed body, called the visible 
Church in this world. This body is not, and never 
will become, the " perfect man ; the measure of 
the stature of the fullness of Christ.'^ The idea 
which filled the Apostle^s mind, seems manifestly 
to have been — not that of the mixed visible Church 
on earth, but — that of the literally one, universal 
Body of Christ, part growingly sanctified on earth, 
part already glorified in Heaven, and all to be 
finally ** presented '' by Himself and " to Himself, 
a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or 
any such thing, but — ^holy and without blemish." 

5. Once more : in Ephesians, 2 : 21, the Church 
is presented under the metaphor of a temple. 
Speaking of '* the household of God," gathered 
from all nations, the Apostle says : "All the build- 
ing, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holj^ 
TEMPLE in the Lord." 

This temple, it is confessed, means the Church. 
In the chapter where the term is used, the Apos- 
tle tells us that in Christ ''is made, of twain, one 
new man." Now, what were "the twain" thus 
made "one" in Christ? Not the whole Jewish 
nation and the whole Gentile world ; but " the 
saints " from among the Jews, and the saints from 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 



53 



among the Gentiles, who had been and were to 
be, gathered into Christ. To both of these parts of 
the human family the blessings of the Gospel were 
at length equally opened. The coming and work of 
Christ had '' broken down the middle wall of par- 
tition," and opened the door to all believers alike, 
of all nations. Those, thus gathered, constitute 
the '' one new man " in Christ, whose members are 
collected from " the twain," the two ancient divi- 
sions of the human family ; and thus collected, they 
constitute the Church, or no Church in Christ has 
ever been gathered. The soundness of this inter- 
pretation is evinced by what immediately precedes 
this chapter. Speaking of the same company of 
'' saints," which he here calls a " Temple," the 
Apostle says that Christ is ''head over all things 
to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of 
Him that filleth all in all." On this passage I shall 
hereafter remark more at length. I cite it now 
merely to show that by the word temple, the 
Apostle means the Church. 

It behoves us, then, to look well to the question, 
of what materials is this temple composed ? Look- 
ing at the chapter in which the building is des- 
cribed, we find it built of '' saints," only ; of those 
who by faith are united to Christ and saved. They 
are particularly addressed as having been " quick- 
ened from a death in trespasses and sins ;" '' raised 



54 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

up and made to sit together in heavenly places in 
Christ Jesus; "saved by grace through faith;" 
"' made nigh by the blood of Christ ; " and blessed 
with " access by one Spirit unto the Father." Both 
the Jewish and the Gentile saints, who constitute 
this " one new man " in Christ, are represented as 
reconciled to God in one body by the Cross ; " — 
terms which cannot be applied to mere saints by 
courtesy. It is doing gross violence to language to 
say that unconverted Jews and unconverted Gen- 
tiles are " reconciled unto God by the Cross," and 
thus made "one body in Christ." Such terms can 
comprehend none but true believers, made one in 
the true Saviour. Hence in this passage, the con- 
verted Ephesians are called " no more strangers 
and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints," 
saints with saints, " and of the household of God ; " 
" built on the foundation of the Apostles and 
Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cor- 
ner stone." In Him, " all the building," all, every 
stone and timber from foundation to pinnacle, all 
is "fitly framed together ; " and, thus framed, all 
** groweth," all, every part and particle, " unto an 
holy TEMPLE in the Lord;" a temple, all "hol}^" 
and all "in the Lord ;" all " builded together for 
an habitation of God through the Spirit ; " and, 
through that Spirit, filled by its occupant in every 
part. 



TESTIMONY OF SGBIPTURE, 55 

Such is the simple import of the passage on 
which we are now engaged. It describes a Church, 
every part of which is united to Christ by faith, 
in a vital and holy union ; and, thus united, is 
saved by Him from sin and everlasting death. In 
building this Temple, no account is taken of any 
other materials ; no other materials are found in 
any part of the sacred edifice. It is built for 
God, and '' through the Spirit " Grod dwells in it, 
vitalizing, sanctifying, and finally glorifying every 
part. It is that Church which Christ " filleth all 
in all." 

This view is sustained by reference to the true 
idea of a Temple. In the sense of the Bible, 
what constitutes a Temple ? Not a mere pile of 
hewn stone and cedar, overlaid with gold and 
silver. We may call such a structure a Temple, 
and by this customary mode of speech we are too 
easily led to suppose that, in itself, it is a Temple. 
This, however, is a low view. Why was that won- 
derful edifice at Jerusalem a true Temple ? Not 
because of its materialit}^, or visibility ; not be- 
cause of its costliness or splendor ; not because of 
its curious structure or mystic design ; but because 
of God's indwelling. This indwelling makes any 
place, any thing, a Temple. This made a Temple 
of Jacob's solitary night- tent, the stone pillow of 
Luz, with the one-arched sky-canvas above. 



^6 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

*^ Surely,'^ said the patriarch, when he awoke to 
realities, " surely Jehovah is in this place, and I 
knew it not." " How dreadful is this place ! This 
is none other but the House of God, and this is the 
gate of heaven." He had been in an august Tem- 
ple because he had been specially with God. This, 
too, shows why the true believer's body is a Tem- 
ple. *' Know ye not that your Body is the Temple 
of the Holy Ghost, which is in you f And this, 
emphatically, made a Temple of the perfect Body 
of Christ. When His hearers understood Him to 
speak of destroying the Temple at Jerusalem, and 
building it in three days, we are told '' He spake 
of the Temple of His Body." It was a most per- 
fect Temple ; for " in Him was God manifest in 
the flesh." " In Him dwelleth all the fullness of 
the Godhead bodily." 

This opens for us the meaning of the word Tem- 
ple, in Eph. 2 : 21. The company there de- 
scribed are a Temple, because in each and every 
one " Christ dwelleth by faith." His dwelling in 
each separately, and thus in all collectively, makes 
them collectively, what each is individually, a won- 
drous Temple ; '' the Temple of the living God ;" 
God "dwelling in them and walking in them;" 
He, "their God," and they " His people;" He, 
their " Father," and they His " Sons and daugh- 
ters ;" all builded together and constituting the 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE, 57 

one glorious Temple of the saints. 2 Cor. 6 : 
16, 18. 

This Temple, in every part inhabited, this 
Church, in every member vitalized, by Grod, is 
identical with that '' Spiritual House, ^' which St. 
Peter describes as built of " living stones " on the 
Foundation of Christ, the '' living Stone.'' This 
edifice he immediately calls " a peculiar people," 
designed to " show forth the praises of Him who 
hath called them out of darkness into His marvel- 
ous light ; which, in time past, were not a people, 
but are now the people of God ; which had not 
obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.'' 
1 Pet. 2 : 5, 9, 10. It is eminently ^'a Spiritual 
House," all alive from the Foundation to the top 
stone, with the life of Christ in every one of His 
members. 

I have thus shown that the idea of the Church, 
presented in the first chapter, is evidently found 
in various places, where the Church is described 
under the several metaphors of a Fold, a Family, 
a Bride, a Body, and a Temple. To my interpre- 
tation of these metaphors I am aware, indeed, that 
some apparently fair objections may be raised. 

1. It may be said that the epistle from which 
most of the passages are cited, and other epistles 
as well, were addressed to local churches, evi- 
dently visible, mixed, imperfect bodies ; and that, 



58 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

therefore, these metaphors must be interpreted in 
accordance with this idea of the churches ad- 
dressed. 

. But to this I reply : the fact that the Epistles 
were addressed to local mixed churches necessi- 
tates no such conclusion. The fact that the Apos- 
tle was writing to a probably mixed company at 
Ephesus, for instance, no more restrained him, 
when he had reached the heart of his subject, from 
rising above the idea of a local and mixed body 
into a conception and description of the Church as 
one, universal and holy, than it restrained him 
from rising into the sublimity of any other Chris- 
tian verity with which he wished to fill their 
thoughts and tire their hearts. In truth, when we 
come to look at the metaphors which have been 
explained, a careful study of the context uniformly 
shows that the inspired writers were conceiving 
and describing, not the local and the mixed, but 
the Universal and the Holy Church ; the Church 
of Christ in its largest, highest comprehension. 

2. Again, it may be said, that the context of 
some of these metaphors exhorts the members of 
the Church thus addressed, to fidelity and holi- 
ness, and warns them against unfaithfulness and sin j 
and that we may hence infer that the Church 
described was a mixed body, composed of true 
believers and of such as merely professed the true 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 



59 



faith, while they were really either self-deceived 
or hypocrites. 

To this, however, I reply : that the exhorta- 
tions to fidelity and holiness, and the warnings 
against unfaithfulness and sin, whenever addressed 
to the Church, as described in these metaphors, do 
not prove that the Church, thus exhorted and 
warned, is composed, in part, of impenitent men, 
of men without faith and with none of the ele- 
ments of holiness. It proves no more than this : 
that, in the Church so gloriously described. Chris- 
tians are not perfect in holiness at the first mo- 
ment of their union with Christ by faith ; that 
they are, too often, needlessly imperfect ; and 
that they are, therefore, proper subjects for the 
discipline of such grave instructions as have been 
given. The "Spiritual House" into which they 
are builded, is, in every part, a live Temple ; 
Spiritual life goes out of the live Eock into every 
single stone built thereon ; so that what is lacking 
in each is, not the living principle, but some of its 
fuller and higher actings ; not the true nature of 
the holy materials, but some of their more finished 
and heavenly adornings. 

The point before us, then, may be considered as 
sufficiently clear. Various metaphors in the Bible 
describe the Church under the idea of it which I 
have presented j an idea, which, in exhibiting the 



6c THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

essential marks of the '' One Holy Catholic Church," 
knows nothing of any outward unity in submission 
to one temporal human head, the Pope ; nor any 
thing of such unity in subordination to One Epis- 
copacy with Sacraments Episcopally administered ; 
an idea, in short, which, in unfolding the essential 
being of the Church, holds forth Christ and life 
fi*om Him by faith in the Individual Soul, as the 
very base and substratum, yea, the very material 
and superstructure of that Church. This idea of 
Christ's '' Holy Catholic Church " the Bible cer- 
tainly gives ; and, doubtless, it is only because 
many have been so long familiar with a different, 
so long wedded to a conflicting notion, that this 
seems to any mind strange, or otherwise than based 
on the highest reason. 

The Bible, it is admitted, often uses the word 
Church in a looser sense : it often speaks of the 
Church as a thing of external organization, and en- 
dowed with a ministry and sacraments ; and in 
this character we shall hereafter be called to study 
the subject. For the present, it is enough to add 
that the highest, truest idea of the Church which 
we find in the Bible, is that in which Christ, and 
individual union with Him by a true faith, with the 
result of growing spiritual life, constitute the very 
soul and body of the Divine Confederacy. The 
Church, in this idea of it, is a thing not of change- 



TESTIMON^Y OF SGEIPTUBE. 6i 

fui and perishable visibilities, but of permanent 
and imperishable spiritualities. It is essentially 
marked by just such inward relations and affec- 
tions as are at once suggested to thought by the 
metaphors under which we have seen it figured. 
The Fold, the Family, the Bride, the Body, the 
Temple ! What things of life are these ! How 
full is each of Divine affinities ! What a Fold is 
that of which Christ is Shepherd ! What a Fam- 
ily, in which Christ is Father ; what a Bride, to 
which Christ is Husband ; what a Body, to which 
Christ is Head ; and what a Temple, of which 
Christ is both Foundation-Stone and cement ! And 
whom does the Bible set forth as participants in 
these holy relationships ? It shows that he is a 
sheep of Christ's Fold who hears His voice and 
follows Him ; that he is of Christ's Family who is 
born unto Him by the Spirit, through the truth ; 
that he is a part of Christ's Bride who is espoused 
to Him in faith and holy love ; that he is a member 
of Christ's Body who draws spiritual life, and feels 
a living control, from Him as Head ; and that he is 
in Christ's Temple who is built on Him as the only 
Foundation, and grows, as by a Sacred Cement, to 
that on which he is builded. He only who enters 
into these heavenly affinities, and is held by them, 
comes within the scope of such passages as have 
been examined ; and all who do thus enter, and 



62 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

are thus held, in afiQnity with Christ, do also come 
within the scope of those passages, by whatever 
outward name they may be known, in whatever 
varying clime they may be found, and under what- 
ever outward disadvantages they may labor. 
Nothing but these aflSnities can make up the Body 
of the true *' Holy Catholic Church," and nothing 
can cut off from this Body where these affinities 
really exist. In the Yisible Church, as we shall 
hereafter see, outward institutions of ministry, and 
sacraments, and discipline, have their proper place, 
and are invested with due importance. They bind 
us, as things of order and as means of grace ; but 
they bind not Grod, as essentials to Christian life 
and incorporation into Christ. His one Holy 
Church is the issue of His working, by whatever 
means ; and when, by his working, it is gath- 
ered into Christ, nothing can cut off from it 
that does not at the same time sever from Christ 
himself. 

As yet, however, I have examined but one of the 
two sets of passages referred to. Our study of the 
other must be reserved for the next chapter. Mean- 
while, I ask two things : that you will not conclude 
hastily against the view which has been presented, 
and that vou will not write me down as no Church- 
man because I have attempted to unfold this view. 
In what I have yet to say, I hope to show that 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 63 

this view of the Church at large is sustained by 
our own standards, and that the view thus sus- 
tained is in perfect keeping with all good fidelity 
and affection to the Church of our own tried 
loyalty and love. 



CHAPTER ni 

TESTIMONY OF SCEIPTUEE. LITERAL TEXTS. 

TN looking into the Bible for tlie ground of that 
^ definition of the Church, which makes this 
Body commensurate with the whole company of 
'' the saved," in union with Christ the Saviour, I 
have already examined one set of passages which 
describe the Church under certain metaphors. 
I am now to examine another, or passages 
which present the Church under its own proper 
name. 

This examination is important, because, however 
clearly the Church, described by those metaphors, 
may seem to correspond with the idea before us, 
it is by some contended that, in all cases where the 
word Church is used, it designates an outward and 
mixed body, composed, in part, of true believers, 
and, in part, of those who merely profess the true 
faith, though they may be self-deceived, hypo- 
crites, or apostates ; or that, in the Bible, the 
word Church designates a visible and organized 
society, with of&cers, sacraments, and mixed body 

(64) 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 65 

of members. Now, if this be true, it will appa- 
rently invalidate our interpretations of the meta- 
phors which have been examined. But if it be 
not true, if there be passages in which the word 
Church carries the sense of our definition, then 
will our interpretation of those metaphors be con- 
firmed, and the doctrine of the Church, involved 
therein, be established. 

Now, that the word Church is often used in the 
Bible to designate a visible, organized and mixed 
society has already been freely admitted. And 
yet, this is not the primitive meaning of the word, 
which is translated by the term Church. In its 
primitive use, the word Ecclesia means simply an 
assembly, an aggregate of individuals ; and it has 
so little to do with visible organization, rules and 
constitution of government, that it was, in early 
times, applied to a tumultuous gathering, a very 
mob ; and that, to designate a lawful, or organized 
body, it needed an adjective to express the quality 
of lawfulness, or organization. Thus, we see, that 
when St. Paul was preaching at Ephesus (Acts 19 : 
23-41), and when the Ephesians, thinking the honor 
of their goddess in peril, and being excited to rage 
by the crafty silversmith, Demetrius, '' rushed," 
rabble-like, " into the theatre," and for " two 
hours" shouted, ''Great is Diana of the Ephe- 
sians j" though " the whole city was filled with 
5 



66 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

confusion/' and " the more part knew not where- 
fore they were come together," save to threaten 
violence to the Christians ; yet, this very mob, the 
most disorderly of its kind, was called anEcclesia. 
" TheEcclesia," says the sacred writer, " was con- 
fused, and the more part knew not wherefore they 
were come together." And then, when '' the Town 
Clerk " had succeeded in " appeasing the people," 
he "dismissed the Ecclesia," adding, that if they 
had any actionable matter against the Christians it 
" should be determined in a lawful assembly" — 

The word itself, therefore, though generally 
translated Church, yet means simply an assembly, 
with no reference to organization and government : 
and, when used to designate an organized body, 
it originally needed an adjective to express the 
quality of organization. There is no controlling 
reason to suppose that, when the word first came 
to be applied to Christians, it was used to designate 
an organized, visible Church, in our sense of the 
term. It meant, I apprehend, simply the unorgan- 
ized company of Christ's disciples. Afterwards, 
when the Christian Church had become an organ- 
ized and visible body, or rather a multitude of such 
bodies, the word was doubtless adopted as the 
common name of each ; — yet, not so as to preclude 
its first use as the name of the one, whole company 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE, 67 

of Christ's true disciples, in vital union with Him 
as their one divine head. 

In Acts 7 : 38, the word is applied to the He- 
brews in the wilderness. " This," Moses, ''is he 
that was with the Church, rn sKKXrjGca, in the wilder- 
ness." But here eKKXr]GLa means — not the Church 
of God under the Old Testament dispensation, but — 
the aggregate of individuals constituting the politi- 
co-theocratic state of the Hebrew people. An or- 
ganized visible Church, as distinct from that social 
theocracy, did not then exist. The Hebrew polity 
in the wilderness was a theocratic state, carrying 
among its individuals the elements of the spiritual 
Church, rather than a visible organized Church, in 
distinction from the state. Acts, 7: 38, may prop- 
erly be rendered, ''This is He that was in the con- 
gregation in the wilderness ; " that congregation 
being the whole aggregate of the Hebrew people, 
and not a Church, as we understand the term. 

Again, in Matt. 18 : 17, the word is applied to 
those who were to hear complaints against offend- 
ers. " If he shall neglect to hear them," the " two 
or three witnesses" — " tell it to the Church," rji 
sKKATjoLa, etc. But to argue that by eicKXrjaia, here 
is meant an organized, visible Church, with power 
to constitute itself a court for the trial and punish- 
ment of offenders, is to plant the seed of a monster 
evil. The idea of a Christian Church, with author- 



68 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

ity to try offenses, and to punish by the infliction 
of positive penalty, is anti - Christian and has 
wrought incalculable mischief. The language of 
Christ implies no more than this : " If thy brother 
offend thee, and will not listen to personal, pri- 
vate expostulation, nor to that of two or three 
witnesses, nor to the assembly of the brethren, 
withdraw from his company and have no more to 
do with him than with the rest of an ungodly 
world. '^ This is all the power of discipline with 
which Christ has invested His disciples — the power 
of separating themselves from all approving fellow- 
ship with incorrigibly unworthy professors of His 
Gospel. Vide 2 Thess. 3 : 6-15 ; 1 Tim. 6:3-5; 
1 Cor. 6 : 1 ad fin. The word eKKXrjGta, Matt. 1 8 : 
17, does not, then, imply a visible, organized 
Church. Such a Christian body had not then come 
into recognized existence. 

Since, then, the word EKKX'qcia does not, of itself, 
imply an organized visible Church, let us now pro- 
ceed to search for passages in which it is used to 
designate the whole company of Christ's truly be- 
lieving disciples — or, the simple aggregate of those 
who are saved through Him. 



TESTIMONY OF SCBIPTVRE. 6g 



II. 



Passages which present the Church under its 

OWN PROPER NAME. 

1. I cite, first, Matt. 16 : 18. ''Upon this rock 
I will build MY Church ; and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it." 

This is the passage on which Rome relies for 
establishing her claim to be regarded as the one 
visible Catholic Church, and the claim of her bish- 
op to universal supremacy, as successor to St. Peter, 
and sole vicar of Christ on earth. She interprets 
the passage thus : " Thou art Peter,'' a rock, " and 
on this rock I will build my Church ; and the gates 
of hell shall not prevail against it " {vide Micyc. 
Am., vol. X., p. 253, art. " Pope, by a Catholic"); 
making Peter and the rock identical, constituting 
one head of the Church on earth, and making 
union with that head necessary. 

Now, though this int?rpretation were, in princi- 
ple, correct, it would yield no support to the claims 
of Rome and her bishop, unless they could prove, 
what history furnishes no infallible means of prov- 
ing, that Peter was the first bishop, or ever a 
bishop, of that Church ; and, w^hat there is no 
means at all of proving, that Peter's primacy among 



70 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

the Apostles made the Bishop of Eome and his suc- 
cessors supreme temporal head of the whole Chris- 
tian Church on earth. 

But, is the above interpretation, in principle, 
correct? Many able and learned commentators on 
the passage have answered this question in the 
negative. Let us, then, look at the passage itself. 

Christ had just asked His disciples — "Who do 
men say that I am ? " And, on being answered 
that some called Him " John the Baptist ; " others, 
" Elias ; " and others still, '' Jeremias," or " one of 
the prophets ; " He asked again, "But who say ye 
that I am ? " To this question, addressed to them 
all, Peter, more prompt, as well as possibly more 
divinely enlightened, than the rest, replied, '*Thou 
art The Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus 
immediately added ; " Blessed art thou, Simon, 
Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it 
unto thee ; but my Father who is in heaven.*' Then 
follows the passage quoted. Let us read the two 
main words in the original Greek: "I say unto 
thee thou art nerpofj," (a stone) " and upon ravrxi 
Txi TTETpa (this rock) I will build my Church ; and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it,-' Upon 
this reading, the question arises ; is Uerpoa, here, 
identical with ravr-q rxi nErpa ? If Christ had intend- 
ed to constitute Peter the foundation of His Church, 
would He not have said, "Thou art Uerpoa, and 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTTTRE. 71 

upon rovTid Tw Trerpw I will build my Church ? This 
He did not say : He changed the main word in the 
sentence : and the question is pertinent ; why this 
change of nerpo^, the proper name given to a disci- 
ple, to nerpa, the foundation of the Church ? 

For light on this point, let us remember that 
Christ was then testing His disciples' enlighten- 
ment as to His true character : " Who do men say 
that I am?" "Who say ye that I am ?'^— and 
that, thus examined, Simon, answering apparently 
for the rest as well as for himself, had " witnessed 
a true confession " by replying, ' * Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God." This, then, 
Jesus, " the anointed, the Son of the living God" — 
a truth revealed to Simon, and peradventure to 
others of the disciples, by "the Father in heaven," 
— this, the most elementary truth of Christianity, 
the very corner-stone of the Christian faith, the 
very life of the Church — this was the grand dis- 
closure which the dialogue had elicited, the weighty 
theme which then filled all their minds. Is it not, 
then, in the highest degree improbable that, while 
His own soul was laboring, and while the minds of 
His disciples were filled, with the grandest birth 
of revelation, Jesus dropped the sublime theme, 
the very starting point and goal of His own inqui- 
ries, wholly out of His thoughts, brought in Simon, 
not as a subordinate, but as the chief object of re 



72 TEE LIVING TEMPLE. 

gard, and sunk the sublime teaching of the occasion 
to an anti-climax by declaring that He would build 
His forever immovable Church on the foundation 
of a weak and unstable man, divinely enlightened 
indeed in the knowledge of his Master's Messiah- 
ship, but rash, changeful and naturally destitute of 
the high moral courage of a great character ? On 
the contrary, is it not, in a corresponding degree, 
probable, that Jesus was still full of His main 
theme, and that he wrought it out, and carried 
it up to the real climax, not only in a true disclo- 
sure of His own Messiahship, but also in the asser- 
tion of the crowning truth that, as the Messiah, He 
is " the chief corner stone " of the Church, and that 
" other foundation can no man la}^ than that is 
laid?'' And is it not, in an equal degree, prob- 
able that His allusion to Simon was but incidental 
to His main purpose, designed to give him the new 
proper name, Jierpoo, by way of commemorating his 
confession of the real Ue-pa, and dignifying him, as 
on other occasions He dignified the rest of the 
Apostles, with the badge of that authority, which 
they were to exercise as nearest to Himself in His 
own '' glorious Church ? " 

Taking, then, the light thus thrown upon these 
two words, may we not accept the following as a 
fair paraphrase of the whole passage? ''What 
think ye of my person and character? Simon 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 73 

answered, ' We believe that Thou art the Messiah, 
the Only Begotten of the living God/ Jesus said 
unto him, ' Thou art highly favored, Bar-jona ; this 
foundation-truth of Christianity has been revealed 
to thee and thy fellow disciples not b}^ man, but by 
my Father in Heaven. And now I give unto thee 
a new name ; henceforth thou shalt be called nerpoa, 
to commemorate thy confession of me as the true 
lierpa. Upou this TLerpa, this Eock, bcsidcs whicli 
no man can lay any other foundation, I will build 
MY Church ; so that, thus founded and thus built, 
no persecutions of men, no subtleties of the Devil, 
and no powers of Death, shall ever prevail, either 
to extinguish or to subvert it. Moreover, in this 
Church, thus divinely founded, and thus immovably 
built, I give to thee, as I shall hereafter give to 
thy fellow Apostles, an office and authority peculiar 
to yourselves, as nearest to me in my evangelical 
kingdom, the power of opening and shutting, with 
the certainty that your acts on earth shall be ratified 
in Heaven.' " ( Vide 1 Cor. 3 : 11 ; Matt. 18 : 18 ; 
John 20 : 23.) 

For one, looking at the passage in this light, I 
cannot wonder at the comment of Stillingfleet : 
" The Rock, spoken of by Christ in his speech to 
Peter, if taken doctrinally, was St. Peter's confes- 
sion ; if taken personally, it was none but Christ 
himself 3'' nor can I marvel that insubstantial 



74 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

agreement with him are to be found Chrysostom 
and Augustine, with other fathers, among the 
ancients, and Jewell, with similar authorities, 
among the moderns. ( Vide Fathers of the Eng. 
Ch., vol. 7, p. 302.) 

This, however, is not all the light that may be 
made to shine on this passage. St. Paul throws on 
it another powerful ray. ''Our fathers," says he, 
1 Cor. 10 : 1-4, " were all under the cloud, and all 
passed through the sea ; and were all baptized unto 
Moses in the cloud and in the sea ; and did all eat 
of the same spiritual meat, and did all drink of the 
same spiritual drink ; for they drank of that spir- 
itual Rock that followed them, and that Rock, 
nerpa, was Christ." The same inspired pen which 
wrote this wrote also that other pregnant sentence, 
"Other Foundation can no man lay than that is 
laid, which is Jesus Chuist.-' 1 Cor. 3:11. Here, 
then, is light indeed, the very Rock, nerpa, by 
name, of which Jesus was speaking to Peter, Christ 
himself, the only Foundation of His Church. This 
light, too, will shine all the clearer, if we remember 
that the Prophet who wrote the Gospel for the 
Jews had predicted Christ under this very idea 
of a Foundation Rock. " Behold I lay in Zion for 
a foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious 
Corner Stone, a Sure Foundation ; he that believ- 
eth shall not make haste." Tsa. 28 : 16 ; comp. 1 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 75 

Pet. 2 : 5, 6. These words of Isaiah, applied to 
Christ by St. Peter himself, embody the very idea 
of Jesus in Matt. 16 : 18. Whosoever '' belie veth " 
on this Foundation Eock, says Peter, '' shall not be 
confounded." The Church thus founded and built 
shall never be subverted. The disciples to whom 
Christ spake were, doubtless, familiar with this 
prophecy of Isaiah, and we may well conclude that 
this prophecy furnished to their minds the key to 
the meaning of their Divine Master, when He said : 
"On this Rock I will build my Church, and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it." They 
needed no labored exposition in words to guide 
them in catching His meaning when he uttered 
those living truths, proclaiming Himself alone the 
eternal Foundation, safeguard and keeper, of His 
own spiritual, believing Church. 

Let us briefly draw out the argument from what 
has now been said. Isaiah, speaking by that 
'' spirit of prophecy" which is ''the testimony of 
Jesus," foretells Christ, as the Foundation of a 
believing and immovable Church. Christ Himself, 
whose inspiration spake by that prophet, calls the 
Foundation of His Church, ne-pa, a Rock. And St. 
Paul, speaking by revelation from the same In- 
spirer, declares that this nerpa, Rock, was Christ. 
This is light from the Bible. The Rock, in Matt. 
16 : 18, is not Simon, but Christ Himself; and His 



76 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

words to His disciple mean just this : '' I give thee 
the new name, Jierpoo, because thou hast truly con- 
fessed me, the predicted Herga, the anointed Son of 
the living God ; and on this Rock I will build my 
Church, that living Temple of believers, which 
shall never be moved.'' 

And now, let us inquire, what kind of a Church 
is this ? I answer, it is a Church whicJi Christ 
builds, not man. '' On this Eock I will build my 
Church." Christ is Builder here, and only Christ. 
He is truly a Builder. Not only is He the true 
Foundation, but He really and ceaselessly works in 
building on that Foundation. He does all the work 
in the Building. By His Spirit and His Truth He 
lays every stone in the edifice. " On this Rock I 
will build my Church.'' Here is no mistake, no 
fallibility, no human infirmity, in selecting and 
arranging the materials. All is done with a Divine 
Master- Workman's science and skill. Christ selects 
every piece, and builds it into the one sacred 
Temple ; and he never builds upon Himself and 
into union with Himself the souls of unbelieving, 
self-deceived, or hypocritical men. He builds 
with those only who accept His invitation, " come 
to Him " by faith, and " find rest unto their souls ; " 
those only who live and walk in Him, " rooted and 
built up in Him, and stablished in the faith." This 
is what makes His Church immovable. Against 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. jj 

the Church, in a merely visible sense, " the gates 
of hell " have oft prevailed. By the floods which 
have poured through those open gates, the Churches 
of Jerusalem, and Antioch , and Africa, and those 
Seven of the Proconsular Asia, have all been 
swept away; and the same has virtually happened 
to all the other and later Churches of the East — 
mere fragments of them tottering still, to make 
their desolations the more visible ; while, as to 
even the great Western Church of the seven-hilled 
city, though those wasteful floods of hell leave her 
still standing in imposing magnitude, yet have they 
filled her with their own deep impurities, and left 
her thus, the all but deadly enemy of the Gospel. 
But the true Church of Christ, the Church of all 
believers, the Church which he has built and is 
building on Himself, from all nations and all names, 
this has never been moved ; against this the floods 
from the gates of hell have beaten and shall for- 
ever beat in vain. Against this they never have 
prevailed, and never can prevail. This Church 
rests on Christ, and He keeps it safe from every 
storm. 

Such, I venture to conclude, is the sense of this 
famous passage. In looking for the meaning of 
such very peculiar language, unquestionably in- 
tended to draw Christ Himself into view, in His 
most essential, live-giving office, it is quite below 



78 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

the subject to suppose that He ends by founding 
His Church on a fallible creature, to be built up 
with the implements of a human ministr}^, sent 
forth, in all their infirmity of judgment, to gather 
into a visible society all sorts of men, the believ- 
ing and the unbelieving, the holy and the unholy ; 
united, as such heterogenous elements must neces- 
sarily be, by merely outward bonds in an external 
organization. Nothing can come up to the nature 
of the occasion and the design of the discourse, 
but that view which considers Christ as presenting 
Himself, *' the anointed Son of the living God," 
the living and the life-giving Saviour, building on 
Himself His own Spiritual Church ; by His Word 
and Spirit calling, teaching, and drawing believing 
souls into vital union with Himself ; and thus con- 
stituting them, in Himself, an impregnable Church, 
the vast " assembly '' of those who " have received 
Christ Jesus the Lord," and who '' walk in Him, 
rooted and built up in Him and established in the 
faith." Col. 2 : 6, 7. This is work for the Divine 
Builder ; and those only on whom He works with 
effect, are members of that Church which rests on 
Himself, never to be moved. 

I will only add, that at the time when Christ 
uttered the words which we have been examining, 
no distinctly Christian organization existed. Either, 
therefore, the word Church, in this passage, must 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 79 

mean the Spiritual Churcli of which I have spoken, 
or it must signify the then visible Church under 
the Jewish Dispensation, to be followed by its visi- 
ble Grentile successor ; the Jewisli being about to 
crucify the Son of Grod, and the Gentile destined 
often to " crucify Him afresh, and to put Him to 
an open shame.'' Do the occasion, then, and the 
words which it called forth, point to the Church 
in this latter sense ? No. The Chuixh, built on 
Christ, has another character and shares another 
destiny. 

2. I cite, next, Acts 2: 47. "And the Lord 
added daily to the Church such as should be 
saved ;" literally, added " the saved " ("ova (7<ofie- 
^01^^) to the Church." The participle here is the 
present, not the future, as we have it in our 
translation ; those who " are saved," not those 
who shall, or should, peradventure, be saved. 

This passage refers to a fact anterior to any 
distinct development of a visible and organized 
Christian Church. As a '' communion of saints," 
indeed, the "Ecclesia" had existed from the be- 
ginning ; and to this " the saved " might be added. 
The Visible Church, under the Jewish Dispensa- 
tion, as a sort of Theocratic State, was also still in 
existence ; but, as it was then passing out of life, it 
is not supposable that " the saved " were added to 
that dying organization. Since then the Church, 



8o THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

as a distinctly visible Christian organization, can 
not be said to have more than begun to develop 
itself, it is the more probable that by " theEccle- 
sia'^ here, to which "the saved were added," is 
meant the enduring '' communion of saints " of all 
ages ; Christ's "• One Holy Catholic Church ;" the 
unfailing, the never transitory Church. To this 
"the saved" were a truly fitting addition; and 
the term fitly indicates the idea of " theEcclesia " 
as it probably existed in the mind of the inspired 
writer. The sense of the passage, then, may be 
thus expressed: "The Lord daily increased the 
Ecclesia, the great company of the saints, by the 
addition of those who were then saved." The 
increase was in exact proportion to the number of 
"the saved." No other element seems to have been 
then in view. The Church here described was, 
evidently, the simple aggregate of " the saved." 
And this becomes the more evident, when we look 
at the language used: "The Lord added," not 
man. The added were baptized, indeed, but it 
was by the Holy Ghost, as well as with water. 
It is true that, as the Christian organization gradu- 
ally took on its visible development, we begin to 
find evidence of man's work, not the Lord's. An- 
nanias and Sapphira, and Simon Magus appear 
among "the sacramental host," and are cut off ; 
but under that outpouring of the Holy Ghost, dur- 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 81 

ing the first sermon of St. Peter, we hear of none 
but '' the saved," and of nothing but the Lord's 
work in saving them. The Lord would have His 
Church to consist of none but '' the saved ;" but 
when *' the saved " began to assume distinctly the 
forms of a visible organization, the evidences of 
man's infirmity began to show themselves in the 
mixing among them of earth's impure and unsaved 
elements. I doubt not, indeed, that at the time re- 
ferred to (Acts 2 : 47), the visible Church, under its 
Christian form, was beginning to develop itself. Its 
ministry had received their commission, and they 
were just entering on their labors in preaching 
the Gospel and baptizing converts. Nevertheless, 
I think the words, rovg aco^ofisvovg, may be con- 
sidered as showing what was the true primitive 
idea of the Church, as the living and holy body of 
" the saved " in Christ. 

3. I cite next, Eph. 1: 22, 23: "And gave 
Him Head over all to the Church, which is His 
Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all." 

In seeking the idea of the Church, of which 
Christ is here styled the Head, it is important to 
look at the context. The Apostle prayed for the 
Ephesian converts, that " the Grod of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give unto 
them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the 
knowledge of Him ; the eyes of their understand- 
6 



82 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

ing being enlightened that they might know what 
is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of 
the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and 
what the exceeding greatness of His power to us- 
ward who believe, according to the working of His 
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when 
He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His 
own right hand in the heavenly places, far above 
all principality, and power, and might, and domin- 
ion, and every name that is named, not only in 
this world, but also in that which is to come." And 
then he goes on to address them as those who,- hav- 
ing been "dead in trespasses and sins," were at 
length, unlike all the rest of a dead world, " quick- 
ened together with Christ, and raised up together, 
and made to sit together in heavenly places,'^ or 
relations, in " Christ Jesus." Such is the context, 
before and after the passage which I have cited ; 
and it must be allowed that the persons here 
described, in connection with the word Church, were 
the renewed subjects of Christ's mighty and saving 
power. His whole discourse, in this part, teems 
with the loftiest possible conceptions of the char- 
acter and privileges of those who belong, in faith 
and holiness, to Christ. These conceptions lie all 
round the word Church, as here used. They enter 
into that word, and embody themselves alone in 
the idea to which the name Church is given. Glory 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE, 83 

shines round about it, from the Eesurrection mys- 
tery on earth, and from principalities and powers 
in Heaven ; from the inward shining of the Holy 
Ghost, and from the surrounding brightness of 
divine affinities to Christ. This glorious Church 
embodies "the Hope of Christ's calling;" it is 
" His Inheritance in the Saints." It displays " the 
exceeding greatness of His power towards them 
that believe." It constitutes, in the truest sense, 
" His Body; " and to this, by a divine affinity, He 
is united as "Head." It is the fullness of Him 
thatfilleth "all in all." 

These last words fix the sense of the term Church, 
in this place : " the fullness of Him that filleth all 
in all." This Church is the fullness of Christ, 
because without it He considers Himself incom- 
plete, wanting the most important of the "prin- 
cipalities and powers " that are subject unto Him. 
It is the COMPLEMENT of Himsclf, that which renders 
Him complete in His spiritual dominion. A King 
must have a Kingdom, and a Head must have a 
Body, or neither of them is complete. A kingdom 
is thus the complement, or "fullness" of a king; 
and a Body is the complement or " fullness" of a 
Head. In the same sense the Church is the com- 
plement or "fullness" of Christ. It is that Body, 
without which the very idea of His Headship 
would be incomplete. Hence the Apostle declares, 



84 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

'' Ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all 
principality and power." Col. 2 : 10. 

What, then, is the character of that Body, which 
is thus Christ's "fullness''? Are wicked men, 
baptized unbelievers and hypocrites, part of Christ's 
fullness ? Is the idea of His Headship incomplete 
without them ? It is not a sufficient answer to this 
question to say that the Church, necessary to com- 
plete the idea of Christ's Headship^ may contain 
some dead or false members, and that, therefore, 
the mixed, visible Church, may be called " the 
fullness " of Christ ; for, to show the utter inad- 
missibility of this construction, the language of the 
passage before us is made still more peculiar : 
" The fullness of Him that lilleth all in all." This 
Church is so His fullness that He filleth it " all in 
all." Taken in its connection, this is not a mere 
general assertion of Christ's Omnipresence in the 
world. It is a special declaration of His indwelling 
in the Church. He fills this Church, '' all in all." 
He fills all the members with all needed grace ; 
all that is necessary to the perfecting of the divine 
whole. The Church is His " fullness," and He fills 
His Church " all in all." There is no member of this 
Church whom He does not ultimately fill with " all 
spiritual grace and benediction." This one passage 
illustrates the sense of all parallel cr analogous 
passages, and shows that, in the Bible, we are pre- 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 85 

sented with a Church identical with the whole 
company of " the saved." 

4. I cite, next, Eph. 3 : 9, 10, 11, 20, 21 : In 
his peculiarly elevated strain the Apostle here de- 
clares that God " created all things by Jesus Christ. 
To the intent that now, unto the principalities and 
powers in heavenly places might be known by the 
Church the manifold wisdom of Grod, according to 
His eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ 
Jesus our Lord." And then, as a fitting doxology 
to that most sublime prayer which closes the chap- 
ter, he adds : "Now, unto Him that is able to do 
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or 
think, according to the power that worketh in us, 
unto Him be glory in the Chuech in Christ Jesus, 
throughout all ages, world without end." In this 
last expression, the grammatic turn of the language 
is similar to that of the passage, Acts, 7 : 38 : " ^i^ 

T^ EKKATjala £V T^ epTj^G). Eph. 3 .' 21 I ^^ EV Ty eKfCAXj^ta 

EV XptOTU). 

''To Him be glory in the Church in Christ 
Jesus ; " the Church which is in Him truly, by a 
divine affinity. A visible, mixed Church is not 
thus in Him. Only a part, the true and sanctified 
members, are really in Him. But the whole 
Church, here mentioned, is really and truly in Him. 
It is " the Church in Christ Jesus." It is, there- 
fore, the spiritual and holy, and not the visible and 



86 THE LIVING TEMPLE. . 

mixed Churcli, of which the Apostle speaks. This 
alone comes up, fully and justifyingly to the 
amazing strength of the language used. This, 
only is the Church, which "now makes known," 
and will forever make known, " unto the Heavenly 
principalities and powers, the manifold wisdom of 
God." This only was and is a body fit to be com- 
prehended in God's "eternal purpose, which He 
purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." None but the 
vast assembly of "the saved" were included 
in that august purpose of the everlasting age. 

5. I cite, next, Col. 1 : 18, 24 : "He is the head 
of the body, the Church." I "rejoice in my suf- 
ferings for 3'ou, and fill up that which is behind of 
the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for His Body's 
sake, which is the Church." 

In the context, here, the Apostle speaks of those 
whom God had " made meet to be partakers of the 
inheritance of the saints in light ;" whom He "had 
delivered from the power of darkness and trans- 
lated into the kingdom of His dear son ; " who had 
been " alienated and enemies in their minds by 
wicked works," but whom Christ at length, had 
" reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, 
to present them holy, and unblamable and unre- 
provable in His sight ;" and to whom, as "saints,^' 
God would " make manifest the riches of the glory 
of His mystery among the Gentiles, which was— ^ 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 87 

Christ in them, the hope of glory.'^ The company, 
thus described, are represented as "reconciled" 
to God " through the blood of the Cross," and as 
existing, like the spiritual family, formerly describ- 
ed, " whether in earth or in heaven." In the 
midst of these strong expressions, so peculiarly 
descriptive of the saints, and of the Evangelic king- 
dom of Christ, the Apostle brings in the same idea, 
as in another place, of Christ's supreme dominion 
over heavenly principalities and powers ; of His 
creation of ail things ; and of the divine pleasure 
''that, in Him should all fullness dwell." And it 
is while uttering all this, that St. Paul says of 
Christ, ''He is the head of the body, the Church ;" 
and professes to "rejoice in his sufferings," and in 
" filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of 
Christ" — "for His Body's sake, which is the 
Church." Is it not plain, then, that though speak- 
ing to the probably mixed company of professed 
disciples in Colosse, yet he was speaking of a 
Church of immeasurably larger comprehension, and 
of truly homogeneous character ; the " one holy 
Catholic Church, the communion of saints " in all 
ages, and in both worlds ? 

6. I cite, next, Eph. 5 : 25-27 : '' As Christ also 
loved THE Church, and gave Himself for it ; that 
He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing 
of water by the word ; that He might present it to 



88 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

Himself a glorious Chur(Dh, not having spot, or 
wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be 
holy and without blemish." 

If the Church, here described, be the visible 
Church, composed of the unexcommunicated sub- 
jects of baptism, we shall be driven to admit, what 
indeed a certain class of doctors strenuously main- 
tain, that all the baptized who die not excommuni- 
cate, are saved ; and that, in order to their salvation, 
a purgatory is necessary to purify the countless my- 
riads of the baptized who die in all the defilement 
of sin. For, that the Church here described is all 
saved is manifest from what precedes, as well as 
from the passage itself. The words occur in an 
exhortation to husbands and wives. "The hus- 
band,'' says the Apostle, " is the head of the wife, 
<even as Christ is the head of the Church ; and He 
is the Saviour of the Body." That is, as I have 
«aid in another place, marriage is a sacred symbol 
of the union between Christ and the Church. With 
the Church, as here intended, Christ holds a living 
and spiritual affinity ; and His Union with it is 
saving: "He is the Saviour of the Body." The 
whole Body of which He is the Saviour, is identi- 
cal with the whole Church of which He is the head. 
As no part of the Body of which He is the Saviour 
is lost, so no member of the Church of which He is 
thus the head perishes. His headship in it is vital, 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 89 

sanctifying, saving. And so it follows, He "loved 
this Church " — all of it — " and gave Himself for it, 
that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the 
washing of water by the Word," or by the sancti- 
fying and cleansing power of the Spirit and the 
Truth, as predicted under the figures of " sprink- 
ling and pouring clean water " on the true people 
of God (Ezek. 36 : 25-27 ; Isa. 44 : 3), and " that 
He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, 
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; 
but that it should be holy and without blemish." 
Is it, then, an admissible opinion, that the Apostle 
is here speaking of the visible Church of all the 
baptized ? Is Christ the Saviour of this body 
taken as a whole ? We cannot receive a proposi- 
tion so manifestly untrue. And jq\, the Church 
here described is just that Body, of which taken as 
a whole Christ is the Saviour. Not the visible 
Church of the baptized, then, but the spiritual 
Church of "the saved," is the subject of this 
passage. 

7. I cite, next, 1 Tim. 3:15:" That thou might- 
est know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the 
house," or household, "of G-od, which is the 
Church of the living God, the pillar and ground 
of the truth." 

Some of the best of the old doctors, like Arch- 
Bishop Cranmer, understand this well-known pas- 



go THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

sage in the sense whicli I urge. Speaking in their 
style, we should say, the Church here named is 
the live Church of the living God. As such, it is 
really " the pillar and ground of the truth." It re- 
ceives, exhibits and supports the truth, always in 
its purity, and in its entireness. Nothing, save its 
divine Head, is so precious to it as this truth. 
Nothing, save Christ, is so loftily held up and so 
unwaveringly maintained by it. Death is sweeter 
to this Church than treason to the truth. The 
spirit of this Church is always the martyr spirit. 
Of the Church, as a visible and mixed body, this 
cannot be said. In this character, it has often be- 
trayed, and oftener still corrupted, or concealed the 
true and saving Word of Grod. It is only the live 
Church of Christ that always retains, magnifies and 
preserves the pure Word of His living truth. 

8. I cite, next, Heb. 2 : 10-13 : ''It became 
Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all 
things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make 
the Captain of their salvation perfect through suf- 
ferings. For, both He that sanctifieth and they 
who are sanctified, are all one ; for which cause He 
is not ashamed to call them brethren : saying, I 
will declare thy name unto my brethren ; in the 
midst of THE Church will I sing praise unto 
thee." . . " Behold ; I, and the children which 
God hath given me ! " 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 91 

111 this passage, the meaning of the word, 
Church, is unconcealably manifest. God proposes 
to Himself a great object, the '' bringing of many 
sons to glory ;" the salvation of the countless mul- 
titude of His holy ones. He furnishes the means 
of securing this great object, by " making the Cap- 
tain of their salvation perfect through sufferings," 
the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God. He 
brings forth the result of the whole in the "one'^ 
sacred family of Him " that sanctifieth and them 
that are sanctified.'' And then, this sanctifying 
Saviour appears among them, and calls them 
"brethren" — His spiritual kin, the "children, 
whom God hath given Him ;" and having done all 
this, He names them "the Church," in the midst 
of which He is to praise the Father of this whole 
plan and consummation. The word Church, here, is 
undeniably a synonym of the company whom 
Christ calls His "brethren;" His brethren, not 
only in that He shared with them their human na- 
ture, but also, in that they share with Him his 
spiritual life. And carrying back the thought 
through the passage ; this company of brethren, 
with Christ, are identical with that "one " sacred 
family of the sanctifier and the sanctified ; as these, 
in their turn, are identical with that bright army 
of " sons " under the victorious " Captain of their 
salvation," whom, from age to age, God is " bring- 



92 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

iug to glory : " '' one " company, under different 
names : so that, what stands forth in the last as 
the Church, is simply the "sons of glory" in the 
first, of these significant nominations. 

9. And last, I cite Heb. 12 : 22-24: ^'Ye are 
come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the 
living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem ; even to an 
innumerable company of angels ; to the general 
assembly and Ohuech of the first-born, which are 
written in Heaven ; and to God, the Judge of all ; 
and to the spirits of just men made perfect ; and to 
Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant ; and to 
the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things 
than that of Abel." 

Here light shines demonstratively on the point 
which lam illustrating. The "Mount Zion," "the 
city of the living God," " the Heavenly Jerusalem," 
are simply synonyms of the one whole Fellowship 
of God's holy subjects, consisting, as our hymn 
expresses it, of "angels, and living saints and 
dead;" or, as a part of this passage has it, of the 
"innumerable company of angels," and " the gen- 
eral assembly and Church of the first-born, which 
are written in Heaven," and " the spirits of just 
men made perfect;" the whole in subjection "to 
God, the Judge of all," and " to Jesus, the Mediator 
of the new Covenant." With the " angels," as one 
part of this vast communion, our argument is not 



TESTIMOXY OF SCRIPTURE. 



93 



specially concerned. Our interest is with the other 
part, " the general assembly and Church of the 
first-born;" "living saints and dead," "written 
in Heaven " while living on earth, and becoming, 
when they enter Heaven, the " spirits of just men 
made perfect." These " living saints and dead" 
make up " the general assembly and Church of the 
first-born," as this and the "innumerable company 
of angels " make up the entire, grand comprehen- 
sion, " the city of the Living God, the Heavenly 
Jerusalem." 

Here, then, we have the Church, in the very 
idea of it which I am illustrating — the assembly, on 
earth and in Heaven, of the saved and the glorified. 
It is not merely the Church as it will be after the 
Day of Judgment, but the Church as it now is and 
will be, consisting of saints alive in the flesh, and 
of saints alive as yet only in the spirit. To this 
Church every true believer comes, when he comes 
by a living faith to Christ. "Ye are" (or rather 
have) " come to the general assembly and Church 
of the first-born." 

It is, to me, quite surprising that McKnight 
translates this, " Ye shall come," etc. Hebraisti- 
cally, he changes a Greek past into an English 
future tense, on the ground that we cannot be said 
to come now "to the Heavenly Jerusalem," that 
coming being a yet future event. Obviously, no 



94 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

such strain upon language is needed by the trans- 
lator of this passage. We may as well say that 
we do not " come to God, and to Jesus, and to the 
blood of sprinkling," until after the Day of Judg- 
ment, as to say that we cannot come to " the 
Heavenly Jerusalem " until after that Day. Because 
part of the Universal Communion is already in 
Heaven, that is no reason why we may not enter 
it on earth. We must enter it on earth, or we 
shall never enter it in Heaven. True believers 
" come now to God ; " they come now " to Jesus, 
the Mediator of the New Covenant," and to "the 
blood of sprinkling." And they come now " to the 
innumerable company of angels," and to ''the 
spirits of the just made perfect," considered as 
parts of " the Heavenly Jerusalem," the Universal 
Fellowship of the holy. They come to all these 
now, by the faith that makes them one in Christ. 
They come now, in the realizings of Life eternal, 
begun already in their souls, and in those inner 
sealings of the Spirit '' whereby they are sealed 
unto the Day of Redemption." These are all pres- 
ent realities ; the earthly privileges of their 
"citizenship in Heaven;" the seals, in time, of 
their "joint heirship with Christ" of the full and 
glorious inheritance of His Kingdom in Eternity. 
They wait not for these things in dubious gloom 
till the darkness of the grave be past. The light 



TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE, 95 

of them shines clear on their blessed lot in the land 
of the living. All these things, however, are no 
more surely God's truth than is this other : that 
true Christians come now to this *' General Assem- 
bly and Church of the first-born." The names of 
all the members of this Church are " written in 
Heaven," while they sojourn upon earth ; and the 
Church to which they thus belong hath a life which, 
at the same time, touches and animates every saint 
below and every saint above. 

This, then, is the Church in its essence and in 
its comprehension. The Bible teaches this doctrine 
of the Church. Every soul that hath a true faith 
in Christ is a member of the true Church of Christ; 
and this idea of the Church is unspeakably more 
grand and more important than all that men can 
conceive of outward splendor and visible unity. 

Here I close my examination of passages in 
support of that definition of the Church which I 
have given. All the metaphors and all the literal 
texts examined are filled with light from this last 
description of the Church. They all come together, 
and find their full expression in this one graphic 
outline of the Church of Christ, as it now exists 
on earth and in Heaven. 

In the next chapter I propose to enter on some 
farther views of the subject. 



CHAPTER IV. 



DISTINCTION BETWEEN VISIBLE AND SPIRITUAL 



"A /TY next step, in the present course of study, 
-^▼J- will take me into an examination of the 
standards and standard writers of our Church on 
the subject before us, in order to show that the 
view of the Church, which I have presented, is 
neither novel, nor without the amplest support of 
human testimony. Before entering on this exami- 
nation, however, I wish to offer a few preparatory 
remarks. 

It was one of the strong features of the Protest- 
ant Reformation that it drew into prominence 
that long-hidden idea of ths Church, which, it is 
the design of this Treatise to exhibit. ''The 
Church,'' said one of the teachers of that great age 
(see, Lambert's Theses in DAubigne's Hist. Ref, 
vol. iv. p. 34), "The Church is the congregation,'^ 
the EKK^Gia, " of those who are united by the same 
spirit, the same faith, the same God, the same Me- 
diator, the same "Word, by which alone they are 

(96) 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 97 

governed, and in which alone thej^ have life. 
D'Aubigne, the historian of that age, observes : 
"Undoubtedly, the Lord has left His Church out- 
ward seals of His grace ; but He has not attached 
salvation to these signs. The essential point is, 
the connection of the faithful with the Word, with 
the Holy Ghost, and with the Head of the Church. 
This is the great truth, which the Reform proclaims.'^ 
pSist. Kef., vol. iv, p. 107.] The opposite doctrine 
has tended to generate, at least in the common 
mind, the idea that " the Church saves.'' It was 
the great work of the Reformation to bring out, 
into proper distinctness, the truth that Christ alone 
saves, and that the Church in its largest, highest 
sense, is just the body, or communion, of '' the 
Baved." 

1. Against this definition of the Church, how- 
ever, it is objected, that it rests on a distinction be- 
tween what is called the visible, and what has been 
termed the invisible Church. This distinction, it 
is contended, is groundless. To many ecclesiasti- 
cists the thought of giving the name, Church, to the 
simple aggregate of those who believe in Christ 
unto life eternal, and whose hearts are with cer- 
tainty known to God only, seems positively dis- 
tasteful. It is not, however, under that distinction, 
but under this objection and this repugnance to it^ 
that the groundlessness really lies. 
7 



98 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

That there is a vast company, composed exclu- 
sively of saints, or true believers in Christ ; that 
He is, in the truest sense, their spiritual or mysti- 
cal Head ; and that they are, in the truest sense, 
His spiritual or mystical body ; these things are as 
certain as that there are a Bible and a Saviour. 
Why, then, should not the name. Church, be given 
to what is, in reality, a Church, — the holy company 
thus constituting one mystical Body in union with 
its one mystical Head ? Has it not already been 
shown, that, to this company, the name. Church, is 
actually given by inspiration itself? The Bible, 
indeed, speaks of visible and organized bodies as 
Churches. Such were "the seven Churches" of 
Asia, and other distinct, outward organizations. 
But the Bible also speaks of the company of '* the 
saved," of holy believers in Christ, as the Church ; 
and therefore justifies the distinction between the 
visible and the spiritual Church. These, indeed, 
are not two separate, independent bodies, without 
any mutual relation. In this world, the spiritual, 
is contained in the visible, as wheaten kernels are 
contained in the husks and straw : still, the two are 
distinguishable and ought never to be confounded. 
A field of the growing grain is called wheat ; and 
so is a measure of the pure, clean kernel ; and the 
latter is the true wheat, that for which the whole 
crop is cultivated. Is this making the chaff and 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 99 

the straw of no value ? By no means. They are 
temporarily very important. They minister to the 
protection, growth and ripening of the kernel ; 
but when the kernel is full grown and ripe, they 
are separated and set aside, to very inferior uses. 
In like manner, a visible organization is called a 
Church ; and so is the spiritual company, " the 
communion of saints :" and it is, in the largest, 
highest sense, the Church, that for which all visible 
Churches are organized. Nor is this to disparage 
the Church as a visible organized body. This lat- 
ter is of great importance. It ministers, or, at 
least, was designed to minister, to the protection, 
nurture, and perfecting of the saints in life and 
godliness. But it is not, in the highest sense, the 
Church ; and when the saints shall all have been 
gathered in from the fields of time, the visible or- 
ganization will be laid aside, as of no longer any 
use. The true Church, alone, will survive, living 
from the beginning of time through all coming 
eternity. 

2. It has been objected again, that the very ety- 
mology of the word, kKuXriaia, Church, implies the 
visibility of the company, thus named ; and that, as 
derived from the verb, KaXeC), " I call," there is the 
same difference between the eKKXrjola, the visible 
Church, and the peculiar company of the '' saved," 
as there is, in Matt. 20 : 16, between the derivative 



lOO THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

kXtjtoIj "called," and the kKXEKroi, "chosen:'' the 
kXtitol including all to whom the call of the Gospel 
is brought in the visible Church ; and the eKXeKrol, 
none but those who are saved. 

This criticism implies that the enXenrol, by them- 
selves, are not to be regarded as the Church. As 
a criticism, however, I think it will not bear ex- 
amination. In Matt. 20 : 16, indeed, the katjtoI and 
the mXeKTol describe the two companies of the pro- 
miscuously called, and the really saved : and if the 
word, rendered Church, were simply KXriola, the 
criticism would have some weight. But, we find 
an important addition made to that word. It is not 
merely nXriola, but m-nXriala ; derived, not merely 
from aaXeC)^ " I Call," but from the compound, ek- 
KaXeoj, "I call out." This makes the eK-KArjcjla, or 
Church, agree in force with the mXefcrol, and desig- 
nate, as I have urged, the company of " the saved," 
and not merely that of " the called," as the Church. 
So far as mere etymology is concerned, the efctcXrjala 
is a company " called out;" as Christ said of His 
disciples ; " I have chosen you out of the world." 
The eKK?i7]ala are called out of the world, as the 
EKXeKTol are chosen out of the world ; the two words 
are etymological equivalents. Besides, in Rom. 
8 : 29, /cA?/TOi, called, is identical in sense with 
ekXektoI, chosen, in Matt. 20 : 16. 

As to the alleged visibility of the ekkXtigU, this 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. loi 

makes nothing against this sense of the word. The 
old phrase " Invisible Church," may mislead us 
here. What is meant by this phrase ? In the 
seventeenth century, a period of intense conflict 
between the Protestant Church in England and her 
Eomish opponents, it was a phrase much in use. 
Whether it was a wisely selected phrase, it may 
be doubted. But, be this as it may, it meant — not 
that the Church, in this idea of it, is a mere ab- 
straction, an invisible notion, but — that the faith in 
Christ and its resulting holiness, which constitute 
men members of this Church, are invisible, seen of 
none but God. God only knows, with absolute cer- 
tainty, who belong to this true Church of Christ, 
His "foundation standeth sure, having this seal; 
the Lord knoweth them that are His." 2 Tim. 2 : 
19. "By their fruits w^e may know them " reason- 
ably well ; still, our judgments on this evidence are 
fallible. God only "knoweth who are His" in 
such a way as not, by any possibility, to be de- 
ceived. For this reason the old writers called the 
whole communion of " the saved," the " Invisible 
Church." The persons of those who constitute it, 
so long as they live, are visible ; but their inward 
proofs of membership are invisible. Their organi- 
zation under Christ as Head is spiritual, not an ob- 
ject of sense. God alone can point out their 
persons with inMlibie certainty. Thus under- 



102 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

stood, there can be no solid objection to the phrase ; 
though I have not chosen to adopt it, because, in 
every respect, save that of the secret of true mem- 
bership, and organization in Christ, the individuals 
in this Church are as visible as any others in the 
world. The kimXriGia, as equivalent to the kicieKToi, 
are visible in person, tliough each carries within an 
invisible union with Christ. 

3. In John 10 : 26, occurs a passage, already 
referred to, which recognizes this distinction be- 
tween the mixed and the spiritual Church. " Ye 
believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I 
said unto you." The Jews, here adressed, were 
natural descendants from Abraham ; they claimed 
God as their Father ; John 8 : 34-42, and they 
were members of the then existing visible Church. 
And yet, Christ tells them that " they were not of 
His sheep," as He had before told them that " they 
were of their father, the devil." John 8 : 44. Not- 
withstanding their membership in the visible 
Church, they were not of Christ's Fold, the true 
Church. Then, as well as now, the mixed and the 
spiritual Church existed ; and Christ knew perfect- 
ly the distinction, as well as the relation, between 
the two. 

Equally significant is the language of St. Paul, 
Eom. 2 : 28, 29. "He is not a Jew, who is one 
outwardly ; neither is that circumcision, which is 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 103 

outward in the flesh ; but he is a Jew who is one 
inwardly ; and circumcision is that of the heart, in 
the spirit, and not in the letter ; whose praise is 
not of men, but of God :" and the similar language, 
Rom. 9 : 6-8. " They are not all Israel, who are 
of Israel ; neither because they are the seed of 
Abraham, are they all children ;" — " that is, they 
which are the children of the flesh, these are not 
the children of God ; but the children of the pro- 
mise are counted for the seed ;" — as also that of 
Gal. 3:7. " Know ye, therefore, that they which 
are of faith, the same are the children of Abra- 
ham.'^ 

In all these passages, the distinction between 
the visible and the spiritual Israel, between the 
mixed and the spiritual Church, is manifest. Mem- 
bership in the spiritual company is constituted, not 
by a mere '^ outward " bond, but by a divine, in- 
ward work ; '' the circumcision of the heart, in the 
spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of 
men, but of God." " The children of the promise," 
they who, inheriting Abraham's faith, have the 
bond of a spiritual kindred with Abraham — these, 
and only these, "are counted for the seed." In 
making up the real Family of Christ, the promised 
Seed, none but these are "counted," or taken into 
Heaven's reckoning. The true Israel, of all Dis- 
pensations, never has been, and never will be, com- 



I04 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

posed of any but a really believing and holy 
seed. 

The Bible, then, clearly recognizes the distinction 
between the Church as a mixed, local and temporal 
arrangement, and the Church as a spiritual^ uni- 
versal, and eternal Body in Christ. When we 
seize and hold up this distinction, therefore, we are 
not following a mere floating illusion of our own 
brain, but are grasping one of the settled verities 
of the Word of God. There is a mixed, and there 
is a spiritual Church. The two are distinguishable, 
though related Bodies. The amount of their rela- 
tion, however, is, in this world, a variable quantity. 
At times they have been more nearly identical, 
their distinction approaching the vanishing point. 
Then, again, they have been immensely unlike, 
held together by a scarcely perceptible bond. 
Sometimes, the visible Church has been nearly all 
pure wheat, almost thoroughly purified by the win- 
nowing fan of persecution and the hallowing breath 
of the Spirit. At others, under long, mildewing 
seasons, it has nearly all run to husks and straw, 
with but here and there a sound, ripe kernel to be 
found. Thus, when the fires of pagan persecution 
kept the outward Body comparatively free from 
dross, the visible and the spiritual Church were 
nearly one and the same ; but, in later ages, when 
the fires were lighted in Christ's name, and turned 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 105 

against the true gold of His own Spiritual Temple, 
then the visible Church contained little but impure 
and noisome elements. In its most obtrusive char- 
acteristics, it became an offensive body of Death, 
though seated on thrones and chairs of state ; while 
the spiritual Church, so far as any portion of it 
lingered on earth, was but a hidden body of Life, 
concealed among mountains and caves. The one 
was mainly a gorgeous system of forms and formal 
persecutors ; the other, a little company of faith 
and faithful sufferers ; the two being held in rela- 
tion by some remaining bonds, but scarcely touch- 
ing each other by the links of a kindred life. In 
all ages, however, the distinction between the two 
has never disappeared, nor has there ever been a 
time when the name. Church, did not as rightfully 
belong to the spiritual, as distinguished from the 
visible Body. 

4. Another remark. Not only is this distinction 
recognized in the Bible, but it is a distinction evi- 
dently vital. Its importance to sound Christian 
theology can hardly be overstated. This point 
deserves a fuller discussion than can now be given. 
I must, however, at least, glance at three par- 
ticulars. 

(1.) It is important to a right understanding of 
the unity of the Church. 

Christ and His Apostles, we know, insist much 



io6 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

on the union of Christians, or the unity of the 
Church. They speak of the benefits of this unity; 
of its necessity as an evidence to the world of 
Christ's mission from the Father; and of the evils 
of violating this unity; and in His last and all- 
prevalent prayer, Christ virtually prophecies that 
this unity shall continue unbroken, and that its 
glorious testimony to the Truth shall be feit and 
acknowledged by the world. 

But of what Church is this sacred, this Divine 
unity predicated ? This is one of the most im- 
portant questioDS in Christian theology. Yolumes 
have been written on it. In answer, however, I 
can afford space for saying no more than this : that 
the unity on which Christ so fervently insists, that 
blest and heavenl}^ bond which makes Christians 
one, even as Christ and the Father are one, resides 
in the spiritual Church. It is a reality and an 
actuality in this Church, and in no other. In this 
Church that unity has never been broken. Injured 
more or less, through human infirmity, it has been; 
but broken, never. In the main, it has been pre- 
served untouched. True disciples of Christ have 
disputed, and, while unknown to each other, have 
indulged harsh and unkind feelings ; but it has 
never needed more than that they should come 
together and know each other truly to show them 
how perfectly, in all essential things, they were 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 107 

one in Christ. This cor^^'ng together in thorough, 
mutual knowledge has ever proved the joining of 
the two ends of that electric chain of spiritual kin- 
dred, which, starting from the heart of Christ, 
passes round through the heart of every true 
Christian, and, returning to Christ again, holds the 
whole in one sacred brotherhood. That touch of 
mutual knowledge and intercourse has ever been 
all that was needed to start the current of their 
sympathetic life, and put it instantly in warm, 
glowing and blissful circulation. Yes ! It is no 
dream; it is true ! This mutual and thorough 
knowledge of each other has ever been, to true 
Christians, the sweet though silent voice of Christ 
in their hearts, speaking their brief tempests into 
''a great calm," and making them realize that the 
vessel in which they are embarked carries Him 
who carries Heavex I Under the one Divine 
Headship of Christ, this spiritual Church holds, 
and will hold forever, unbroken unity. Ecclesias- 
tical history shows us, on the contrary, that, in the 
visible Church, unity under one human head and 
organization has never been more than a baseless, 
impracticable theory ; and that all efforts to force 
such a unity have been productive of little else 
than fightings, bloodshed, and hypocrisy! 

(2.) The distinction between the Spiritual and 
the Visible Church is important to a right under- 



io8 TEE LIVING TEMPLE, 

standing and use of t^-^ Promises of the Gros- 
pel. 

We know that ''exceeding great and precious 
promises are given " to the followers of Christ ; and 
that some of these promises seem to apply to them 
in their social rather than in their individual 
capacity. "Where two or three are gathered 
together in my name, there am I in ih^ midst of 
them.'' Matt. 18 : 20. '' Whatsoever ye shall ask 
in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Matt. 21: 
22. " My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, 
and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal 
life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any 
pluck them out of my hand." John 10 : 27, 28. 
"No weapon that is formed against thee shall 
prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against 
thee in judgment thou shalt utterly condemn." 
Tsa. 54 : 17. " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the world." Matt. 28 : 20. Such are a 
few only of this class of promises. 

Here, then, arises a question, similarly important 
to sound Christian theology. Are these and similar 
promises made to professing Christians as a visible, 
or to actual believers as a spiritual Church ? And 
the brief but confident reply is, they are made to 
the latter as a spiritual Church — as the one whole 
communion of Christ's true followers. To this 
Church only are these promises appropriate, and 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 



[09 



to this only have they been fulfilled. This Church 
has evermore Christ's presence. Against this 
Church no weapon has ever prospered. In Christ's 
promises she is virtually omnipotent. In His faith- 
fulness her final victory is sure. His promises are 
her heritage, and His grace her possession. His 
blessings clothe her v>dth the garments of salvation. 
She is " the King's Daughter, all glorious within," 
and her mercies ever have been and ever shall be 
" the sure mercies of David." All this can be said 
of the Church in no other sense than that in which 
she is spiritual, truly a '' communion of saints.'' To 
apply these promises to the Church as a visible, 
organized, mixed Society, ever has been, and ever 
must be, a source of perilous delusion to the souls 
of men. 

(3.) This distinction, finally, is important to a 
right understanding of the In^fallibility of the 
Church. 

We know that there is a sense in which the 
Church has been endowed witli the attribute of 
infallibility, or indefectibility. '' The Church of 
the living God" is "the pillar and ground of the 
Truth." The Holy Spirit is to " guide her into all 
Truth." And against her, in her truth as well as 
in her being, "the gates of hell" are never to 
prevail. 

But the question arises, and one more important 



no THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

to sound Christian theology can hardly be asked : 
So far as infallibility is implied in these and similar 
expressions, is it an attribute of the visible or a 
gift to the spiritual Church ? And we shall be safe 
in replying, to the latter, and to no other. This, 
only, has never either fatally or materially erred. 
By the very terms of its being, in holding to 
Christ, the Head, it holds to everything essential, 
and to nothing essentially opposed, to His Truth. 
The spiritual Church has often bled in defense of 
the Truth, but it has never turned a traitor to its 
cause. But not so on the contrary supposition. 
The visible Church has often and fundamentally 
erred. Indeed, the theory of an infallibility vested 
in the visible Church has done little else than to 
stereotype the most destructive errors. 

The points thus briefly noticed have made Chris- 
tian theolog}^ for ages one wide field of conflict, 
simply because they have been drawn out of their 
true connection, and forced into a position for which 
they were never designed ; and the conflict about 
them will never cease until Christ has again His 
own ; until He is acknowledged as the only Centre 
of Unity in His Church ; until His promises are 
regarded as the heritage of that Church in her spir- 
itual oneness only; and until men cease to seek for 
infallibility anywhere save in her Divine Head, in 
His own Inspired Word, and in His "One holy 



TESTIMONY OF STAXDAED3. 1 1 1 

Catholic Church," as verily a " Communion of 
Saints.'^ 

I proceed now to look at the standards and 
standard writers of our Church, for the purpose of 
showing that the definition of the Church, which I 
have given, is neither novel nor without the amplest 
support of human testimony. 

In doing this, it is evidently proper to look for 
this idea of the true spiritual Church in the devo- 
tional, rather than in the dogmatical, standards of 
our communion. In her devotional standards, our 
Church bears her part with the whole body of 
spiritual worshipers, and therefore speaks the 
language of true catholicity; but in her dogmatical 
standards she legislates for her own government 
and discipline, and therefore speaks for herself 
only, without claiming to bind others in all things 
to her judgments. It is in her worship, emphat- 
ically, that she appears as the true Catholic. 

1. In the Collect, then, for '' All Saints' Day," she 
addresses God as havino* "knit toorether His elect 
in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical 
body of His Son, Christ our Lord ; '' and prays for 
"grace so to foUoAV His blessed saints in all virtuous 
and godly living, that we may come to those un- 
speakable joys, which he has prepared for those 
who unfeignedly love Him ; through Jesus Christ 
our Lord." 



112 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

This language is strictly evidence m the case 
before us. Our Church is here teaching as well as 
praying. She is uttering her mind on a great and 
important subject, and, in doing so, she gives a dis- 
tinct and comprehensive definition of the "one 
holy Catholic Church." She defines it as God's 
" elect," neither disconnected, nor yet organized 
under visible constitution, but ''knit together in 
one communion and fellowship, in the mystical 
body of His Son Christ." Now, this "one com- 
munion and fellowship, knit together in the mystical 
body of Christ," is a true Church, or there is no 
such thing as a Church on earth or in Heaven. Of 
whom, then, is this Church composed ? 

In answer to this, bear in mind that the Collect 
is a prayer for "all saints." And who are all 
saints ? Are they Romish saints only, or Episcopal 
saints exclusively ? No ; but God's saints ; His 
"blessed saints;" His saints in Patriarchal, in 
Hebrew, and in Jewish times ; His saints in the 
days of Christ, of His Apostles, and of all Chris- 
tian ages ; His saints now and always ; His saints 
here and everywhere ; His saints alive in the flesh, 
and alive in " the spirits of just men made perfect." 
All these, and only these, are the members 
"elect," the "knit together in one communion and 
fellowship in the mystical body of Christ ; " in the 
one truly united and holy Church, of which Christ 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 



113 



is the divinely constituted Head j and the Collect 
teaches us to pray for "grace so to follow" these 
recognized saints of God, "in all virtuous and 
godly living, that we too may come to those un- 
speakable joys which God has prepared for those 
who unfeignedly love Him." These last words are 
a Biblical exposition of the term ^' elect," in the 
opening of the Collect. The " elect " are they 
"who unfeignedly love God." "All things," says 
St. Paul, " work together for good to them that love 
God, to them that are the called according to His 
purpose." Here, " they that love God," and the 
" elect," or " called according to His purpose," are 
identical in sense. They are mutually explanatory. 
So, in the Collect before us, they " who unfeignedly 
love God," and the " elect in one communion and 
fellowship " are identical in meaning. They are 
mutually exegetical. The language at the close of 
the collect, therefore, is equally available with that 
at the opening and in the middle, for the settlement 
of the question, "Who compose this truly united, 
this one Holy Church ; this "one communion and 
fellowship in the mystical body of Christ ? ^' They 
are all those "blessed saints," and only those 
" who unfeignedly love God." Dare any man take 
this and kindred language in the Collect, and limit 
it to a description of the visible Church, or even 
to those exclusively who are the truly holy mem» 
8 



114 ^^^ LIVING TEMPLE, 

bers of our own and of other Episcopal Churches ? 
Let him attempt so strange an act, and our Zion 
herself shall rise up from her knees, from the offer- 
ing of this truly catholic prayer, and forbid such 
deep violence on her words. She is not here 
describing the visible Church, nor the saints under 
Episcopal regimen ; she is teaching us who compose 
the one, holy communion, the really united Church 
of Christ, and is praying, if peradventure they 
who are now her professed members may also be 
found included, at last, in that great, that Divine 
" knitting together " of all God's " elect.'' 

It is hardly necessary to say, that the language 
of this Collect is based on some of the very passages 
in the Bible which I have expounded, and contains 
a description of the Church in strict harmony 
with the idea which it has been my purpose to 
exhibit. Had I explored the whole English lan- 
guage, I could scarcely have found terms more 
suited to my purpose than those here furnished ; 
the precise, luminous teachings of our Zion, as she 
deliberately, yet devoutly, utters her mind at the 
footstool of the Throne. 

2. In the prayer at the close of our Communion 
Service, we thank God that we, "who have duly 
received these holy mysteries," who are really par- 
takers of Christ by faith, ''are also very members, 
incorporate in the mystical body of His Son, which 



TESTIMONY OF STANBARDS. 



"5 



is the blessed company of all faithful people ; and 
are also heirs, through hope, of His everlasting 
Kingdom, by the merits of the most precious death 
and passion of His dear Son/' And to this thanks- 
giving we add a petition for " grace to continue in 
that holy fellowship, and to do all such good works 
as God hath prepared for us to walk in." 

This passage expresses precisely the same idea 
with the former, and to it the same remarks may 
be applied. Our Church is here uttering her most 
solemn teachings, as well as her devoutest worship ; 
and in doing so she gives a concise, yet still lu- 
minous, definition of the one and whole Catholic 
Church. She terms it ''the mystical body of the 
Son" of God ; and then, varying her description, 
she calls it a ''holy fellowship." In this, too, as 
in the former instance, the body described is un- 
questionably a Church. The phrase, "mystical 
Body of thy Son," has the same meaning with that 
in which St. Paul says that God gave Christ to be 
" Head over all things to the Church, which is His 
Body." The term Body, as a metaphor for the 
Church, has an established meaning. 

Of whom, then, according to the teaching here, 
is this Church composed ? The answer may be 
given in the simple words of the prayer itself It 
is composed of "the blessed company of all faith- 
ful people." These words are a comment, in the 



ii6 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

very form of a definition, upon those which precede, 
^'The mystical body of thy Son." The Church 
here described is expressly declared to consist of 
'' the blessed company of all faithful people." The 
style of this language belongs to the age in which 
the Book of Common Prayer was set forth. The 
phrase, "all faithful people," meant then, just what 
we understand now, by the words, all true believers. 
A similar antiquity of style occurs earlier in the 
prayer, where real partakers of Christ, by faith, 
are said to be *' very members, incorporated in His 
mystical body." The meaning is, true members ; 
true, as opposed to false or merety formal ; mem- 
bers not only by ''the outward visible sign," but 
also by "the inward and spiritual signification ;" 
members of the body of Christ by the Spirit's in- 
grafting. The Church, then, described in this 
prayer, is composed of "all true believers," and 
of such only. It is not the distracted, but "the 
blessed company of all faithful people," of all the 
" very members " of Christ's " mystical body." 

And how fitting it is that, when we use this 
prayer, our hearts and minds should be filled with 
this one truly Catholic thought ! Let us remem- 
ber that, when oar Church uses this prayer, she 
has again gone down upon her knees, and that it is 
now amid the consecrated memorials, and after 
gazing by faith on the visible symbols of the bloody 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 1 1 7 

passion of Him, who came into the world to " taste 
death for every man." She has gone down upon 
her knees amid hallowed memories of Gethsemane^s 
bloody sweat and of Calvary's bloodier Cross. And 
she has gone down upon her knees to thank God 
for a Saviour to penitent and believing sinners ! 
Eemember all this, and then tell me, has she tak- 
en that soul-humbling posture, and placed herself 
amid those heart-melting associations, merely to 
bless God for salvation through an Episcopacy, or 
to define the Church as limited to those who enjoy 
such a rich and long cherished blessing ? To sup- 
pose this were to do her unspeakable dishonor ; and 
she would once more rise up from her knees, and, 
pointing to the sacrament of her crucified Lord, 
would nobly put away from her the unmerited re- 
proach. She would say: ''I took that lowly pos- 
ture, and surrounded myself with those touching 
remembrancers, the better to realize my share in 
the mercies of Him, who ''suffered for sins, the 
just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God ;" 
the better to realize my fellowship with patriarchs 
and prophets, with apostles and martyrs, and with 
all the noble company of saints in every age, from 
the morning to the eve of time : the better to real- 
ize my own privileges in having contributed many 
from among my own children to that "blessed 
company of all faithful people ;" the better to real^ 



ii8 TEE LIVmO TEMPLE. 

ize a fitting sympathy with my once suffering, but 
now rejoicing Lord in every '' broken spirit" and 
in every " contrite heart," that comes to Him, from 
this poor, dying world, for pardon, peace and life ; 
the better to mingle my tuneful song with that of 
all the redeemed from every land and of every 
name, — that "holy fellowship" of ''the saved," whom 
Jesus is gathering out of time and preparing to 
glorify in eternity ! It was for all this that I knelt 
there, as if at the foot of the Cross, and amid " the 
sprinkling of the blood "of " the Lamb that taketh 
away the sin of the world." I was seeking to 
identify myself with the great ■' mystical Body of 
Christ" the living "Head ;" that Body in which are 
no dead members ; the one part whereof is already 
joined with Him in heaven, while the other still 
walketh with His purifying Spirit upon earth." 

Such are the posture and teaching of our Church 
in this most Catholic, most teaching prayer ; and 
thus does she define the one, unbroken and holy 
Church of her Divine Head ! And who does not 
delight to see her in such an attitude, and to hear 
her utter such a teaching ? Who does not delight 
to see her thus lowly before her exalted Lord, and 
thus thrilled with her divine theme ; thus covering 
herself — not with the Apostolic robes of her vener- 
able Episcopacy, but — with that one ampler robe 
of salvation through the Crucified ; the robe which 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 1 1 9 

is thrown over the whole of His one '' mystical 
Body,'' which adorns " the bride, the Lamb's wife," 
and which clothes the whole sacred ''family," liv- 
ing with Him in holy union and concord from the 
first saint that believed to the last believer that 
shall be saved ! 

The language, which has thus been examined 
from two of the most expressive forms of the 
Church, cannot be considered as defining either the 
visible Church, or the Church as limited by an 
Episcopacy ; because the visible Church contains a 
vast multitude of unconverted, and even many 
most ungodly members ; while the Church, as limi- 
ted by an Episcopacy, does not contain all the 
really holy whom Christ is gathering out of the 
world, and unto Himself. It is language fitted for 
nothing else in the world but for a faithful and 
lively description of that spiritual Church, which 
consists of true believers only, and comprises all 
true believers, who ever have lived, or ever shall 
live. 

3. Citations to the same effect from our devo- 
tional standards may be multiplied. Without at- 
tempting this, however, in detail, I will merely 
group together a few of the many that might be 
adduced. 

The Creed, the Litany, and the Te Deum are 
amono; the most ancient and accredited of Chris- 



,20 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

tian compositions ; and they all breathe the true 
spirit of early Catholicity and devotion, and savor 
strongly of an age, when Christian fellowship in 
its generous grasp embraced all who truly held 
the Head, Christ. Thus, the Creed propounds to us 
" one holy Catholic Church, as "■ the communion of 
saints." The Litany prays God " to rule and 
govern His holy Church universal in the right 
way ;" and ''to give to all His people increase of 
grace to hear meekly His Word, to receive it with 
pure affection, and to bring forth the fruits of the 
Spirit." And the Te Deum sends up its hymn of 
praise from " the goodly fellowship of the prophets ;" 
from "• the glorious company of the apostles ;" from 
'' the noble army of martyrs ;" and finally, as in- 
clusive of the whole communion of saints, from 
** the holy Church throughout all the world," in all 
its revolving ages. ''When thou hadst overcome 
the sharpness of death. Thou didst open the king- 
dom of heaven to all believers ;" " We therefore 
pray Thee, help thy servants, whom Thou hast re- 
deemed with Thy precious blood :" " Make them 
to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlast- 
ing :" " Oh Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine 
heritage." Here is language fitting the mouths of 
those who worship Christ. Here is a copious mul- 
tiplication of terms, for the expression of one single 
idea: "all believers;" "Thy servants;" "Thy 



Ti:STIMONY OF STA2n)ARD8, 121 

saints ;" " Thy people ;'' '' Thine heritage ;" terms, 
which refuse any limit to their meaning short of 
that which bounds the fruit of Christ's bloodily re- 
deeming sufferings and death ; and all ranged 
under the one broadly comprehending phrase, 
"The holy Church throughout all the world." 

Much time might be spent in amplifying these 
concentrated, yet glowing expressions ; in tracing 
them up to their origin in the Bible ; and in illus- 
trating their Christ-like Catholicism of comprehen- 
sion. But it is needless to pursue even such a 
pleasing theme. I close, therefore, this point by 
simply reminding you that, thus far, I have been 
citing from the devotional Standards of our Church. 
You have been catching the utterances of her mind, 
while bowing in worship amid the hosts of the re- 
deemed at the feet of the Redeemer, and while 
erect in praises amid the whole countless band of 
those, who shout, " Worthy is the Lamb that was 
slain/' and "hath redeemed us to God by His 
blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and peo- 
ple, and nation ; and hath made us unto our Grod 
kings and priests ; and we shall reign on the earth." 
You have, therefore, been listening to her in acts 
which lift her above all but the loftiest, and expand 
her beyond all but the broadest conceptions ; and 
which place her right by the side of Christ, as He 
looks, with divine satisfaction, over the whole fruit 



122 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

of His sufferings, over the whole '' travail of His 
soul." In her worship, she is not sectarian but 
Christian ; on her knees, she defines Christ's 
Church as it lives in Christ's heart, and not as it is 
bounded by visible lines. 

The testimony of our standard writers is reserv- 
ed for the next Chapter. 



CHAPTER V. 

TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 

IN the last Chapter, after noticing some objec- 
tions against the distinction between the spirit- 
ual and the visible Church, and showing the im- 
portance of this distinction to a right understanding 
of various points of Christion doctrine, I proceeded 
to demonstrate, that the definition, which I have 
given of the Church, as the whole company of " the 
saved," in union with Christ, the Saviour, His 
" mystical Body," composed of '' all faithful people," 
is sustained by the devotional standards of our 
communion ; — those venerable forms, in which our 
Church utters her mind at the foot of the Throne, 
not as a controversialist, nor as a mere legislator 
for her own government and discipline, but as a 
member of that great band of worshippers, who pre- 
sent their offerings of prayer and praise to one 
common Father, by faith in the one Saviour of them 
ALL. We found those standards familiar with the 
old Catholic idea of Christ, as '* Head over all 
things to the Church, which is His body ; the fiil- 

(123) 



J 24 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

ness of Him that filleth all in all ;" that body, 
whose organization is spiritual, consisting in the 
inward union of all its members with the Head, by 
a live and life-giving faith. For the present Chap- 
ter, I have reserved the labor of showing, by ci- 
tations from the Standard writers of our own Pro- 
testant Eeformation, that, theologically as well as 
devotionally, the idea of the Church, which I have 
presented, has distinct and most abundant sanc- 
tion. 

These Standard writers of our Church flourished 
chiefly, in two successive ages ; — that of the Refor- 
mation itself, and that which followed the Reforma- 
tion. The former, in the Sixteenth Century, was 
an age of much controversy, but of more action. 
Principles were then asserted and defended ; but 
the main labor of the age lay in building up the 
Reformed Church on the basis of those principles, 
and, with martyr-blood, cementing it in the true 
faith of Christ. The latter, in the Seventeenth 
Century, may be distinguished as an age of much 
action, but of more controversy. The " good 
fight of faith," with all its blood and fires, so far as 
the Reformation was concerned, was ended ; and 
the race of those controversial giants, subsequently 
sprung from the loins of the Reformation, came 
forth upon a comparatively quiet field, to demon- 
strate, from the Word of God, the truth of those 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITEBS. 125 

principles, which the preceding age had laid in 
the foundation of the Reformed Church. 

Upon the main points, taken in this discus- 
sion the distinction between the spiritual and 
the visible Church, and the superior title of 
the former to the name of The Church — the 
writers of both these ages were distinct and 
full. 

I. Writers of the Sixteenth Century, or age of 
the Reformation. 

1. Cranmer, the martyred Archbishop, whose 
blood wet the roots of the English Reformed 
Church, in his explanation of the Apostles' Creed, 
writes thus : " I believe the ' holy Catholic Church ;' 
that is to say : that there is ever found some com- 
pany of men, or some congregation of good people, 
who believe the gosjDcl and are saved. . . . For 
this word, Church, signifieth a company of men, 
lightened with the Spirit of Christ, who do receive 
the Gospel. ... And this Christian Church is a 
* communion of saints ;' that is to say, all that be of 
this communion or company, be holy, and be one 
holy body under Christ, their Head. And this 
congregation receiveth, of their Lord and Head, all 
spiritual riches and gifts that pertain to the sanc- 
tification and making holy of the same body. And 
these ^ghostly treasures,' or spiritual gifts, * be 



126 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

common to the whole body, and to every member 
of the same.^ " [Catechism of 1548.] 

"• The holy Church is so unknown to the world, 
that no man can describe it ; but God alone, who 
searcheth the hearts of all men, and knoweth His 
true children from others. . . . This Church is 
'the pillar of the truth,' because it resteth on 
Grod's Word. . . . But as for the open, known 
Church, and the outward face thereof, it is not ' the 
pillar of the truth,' otherwise than it is, as it were, 
a register, or a treasury, to keep the books of 
God's holy Will and Testament, and to rest only 
thereupon." [Answer to Dr. Smith.] 

*' What wonder is it, then, that the open Church 
is now, of late years, fallen into many errors and 
corruptions ; and the holy Church of Christ is 
secret and unknown, seeing that Satan, these five 
hundred years, hath been let loose, and Anti- 
Christ reigneth, spoiling and devouring the simple 
flock of Christ ?" [Answer to Dr. Smith.] 

In these passages, bear in mind, the martyr is 
interpreting the Apostles' Creed, the highest, most 
authoritative standard of our Church. How, then, 
does he define " the holy Catholic Church, the com- 
munion of saints ? " Precisely as I have defined 
the one, true Church of Christ ; as the company of 
"the saved," that body, of which Christ is Head, 
and " every member " of which is a partaker of 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 127 

those ''ghostly treasures,*' which are the gifts of 
the Spirit. This Church, too, he carefully distiu- 
guishes from the visible, or, as he calls it, " the 
open, known Church ;" declaring the former to be, 
aud the latter not to be, " the pillar of the truth." 
The great company of "the saved," of those who 
believe in Christ and are made holy, in all ages, is 
the Church, which Cranmer finds in the Apostles' 
Creed, the most ancient of all Christian Symbols. 

2. His brother martyr, the accomplished Eidley 
of London, is in full accord with him on this point. 

"The name. Church," says he, "is taken in 
Scripture, sometimes, for the whole multitude of 
them which profess the name of Christ ; of the 
which they are also named Christians. But, as 
St. Paul saith of the Jew, " He is not a Jew, who 
is one outwardly ; neither yet all that be of Israel 
are counted of the seed ;" even so, not every one 
which is a Christian outwardly is a Christian in- 
deed. For, ''if any man have not the Spirit of 
Christ, the same is none of His." Therefore, that 
Church, which is His body, of Avhom Christ is the 
Head, standeth only of living stones, and true 
Christians, not only outwardly in name and title, 
but inwardly, in heart and truth." [Ridley's 
Works, Parker Soc. 7 Ed. p. 126.] 

Here is the same distinction between the visi- 
ble and the spiritual Church. The Bishop says, — 



128 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

not that the professing Christian, while without 
the Spirit of Christ, does not belong to the Church, 
but — that, the name, Church, is sometimes given in 
Scripture to the whole company of those who profess 
the name of Christ, though many of them are ' ' none of 
His :" — while the true Church, that ''of which Christ 
is Head, standeth only of living stones, true Chris- 
tians,'' both '' in name and title, and in heart and 
truth." According to this martyr, there is a sense 
in which the merely nominal Christian belongs to 
the Church ; while there is another sense, in which 
he does not belong to the Church. Of the visible 
mixed Church he is a member ; but of the Church, 
as that spiritual, mystical body of which Christ is 
Head, he is not a member. This Church hath 
nothing in it but members joined to Christ by a 
vitalizing faith. 

3. The martyr, Hooper, bears the same testi- 
mony. Explaining the phrase "Holy Catholic 
Church," he says : "I believe that this Church is 
invisible to the eye of man, and is only to God 
known." . . . It " is not set, compassed and limit- 
ed within a certain place or bounds, but is scattered 
and spread abroad throughout all the world ; but 
yet coupled together in heart, will and spirit, by 
the bond of faith and charity." ..." This Church 
containeth in it all the righteous and chosen peo- 
ple, from the first righteous man, unto the last that 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 1 29 

shall be found righteous in the end of the world." 
. . . " xis touching the visible Church, which is 
the congregation of the good and the wicked, of the 
chosen and the reprobate,'^ . . . '' I do not believe 
that to be The Church, because that Church is 
seen of the eye, and the faith thereof is in visible 
things." . . . The holy Catholic Church '' is the 
Body of Christ, wherein there is never a corrupt, 
or infected member. It is the Spouse of Christ, 
which is pure and clean, without wrinkle and with- 
out spot ; it is holy and without blame, cleansed 
and sanctified in the blood and by the Word of her 
Head, of her well-beloved Spouse, Jesus Christ," — 
[Hooper's Works, Vol. II. pp. 40, 41. Parker Soc. 7 
Ed.] All this is plain testimony, and to the point. 
4. Nowell's Catechism belongs to the same period, 
and gives the same teaching. It defines the Church, 
'' the Body of Christ," to be " the universal number 
and fellowship of all the faithful, whom God, 
through Christ, hath, before all beginning of time, 
appointed to everlasting life." . . . And then, as- 
signing a reason why we are taught in the Creed, 
to "believe "in this Church, it says: "Because 
this ' communion of saints ' cannot be perceived by 
our senses, nor by any natural kind of knowledge 
or force of understanding, as other civil com- 
munities and fellowships of men may be, therefore 
it is here rightly placed among these things that lie 
9 



130 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

in belief." [NowelFs Catechism, Parker Soc. 7 
Ed. pp. 172, 174.] That is ; the visible Church is 
an object of sight ; the spiritual Church is an object 
of faith. 

5. Becon, also, Cranmer's chaplain, explains the 
Church mentioned in the Creed, by saying that it 
is "Yerily a company of saints, or of holy and 
godly-disposed persons knit together by one Spirit, 
in one faith, in one hope, in one love, in one bap- 
tism, in one doctrine ; having one Head, which is 
Christ Jesus, and serving one God, which is the 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in holiness and 
righteousness all the days of their life." ..." And 
in this company or fellowship of saints, all things 
appertaining to everlasting salvation are com- 
mon," that is, enjoyed by each and every one, such 
'' as the favor of God, remission of sins, quietness 
of conscience, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and 
everlasting life." [Becon's Catechism : Works, 
Yol. II., p. 43.] This language cannot be used as 
a description of the mixed, visible Church. 

But I must pass from this first, to what may be 
termed the second age of the Reformation. 

II. Writers of the Seventeenth Century, or post- 
Reformation period. 

1. Among the earliest authors of this prolific 
period, stands Richard Hooker, a name in every 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 131 

churchman's mouth ; as humble and holy as he 
was learned and wise. 

In his great work, the "Ecclesiastical Polity/' 
while expressly distinguishing the visible from the 
invisible Church, he says : '' The Church of Christ, 
which we properly term His Body mystical, can 
be but one, neither can that one be sensibly dis- 
cerned by any man, inasmuch as the parts thereof 
are some in heaven already with Christ ; and the 
rest that are on earth, albeit their natural persons 
be visible, we do not discern under this property, 
whereby they are truly and infallibly of that Body. 
Only our minds, by intellectual conceit, are able 
to apprehend that such a real Body there is ; a 
Body collective, because it containeth a huge mul- 
titude ; a Body mystical, because the mystery of 
their conjunction is removed altogether from sense." 
And now, mark what he says of this Church of 
Christ. " Whatsoever we read in Scripture con- 
cerning the endless love and saving mercy which 
God showeth towards His Church, the only proper 
subject thereof is this Church ;" this Body mysti- 
cal, part whereof is in Heaven already with Christ, 
while the other part is still on earth, being truly 
and infallibly of that Body, though the mystery 
of their conjunction with it is removed altogether 
from sense. " Concerning this flock it is, that our 
Lord and Saviour hath promised : "I give unto 



132 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

them eternal life, and they shall never perish ; 
neither shall any pluck them out of my hands." 
To this mystical Church, he says, " belong the 
everlasting promises of love, mercy and blessed- 
ness." ..." Unto that Church, which is His mys- 
tical Body," it is "not possible" that wicked or 
merely formal members "should belong;" "be- 
cause that Body consisteth of none but only true 
Israelites, true sons of Abraham, true servants 
and saints of God." [Eccl. Pol., B. iii., Sec. 1, 
pp. 269-272. Lond., 1825.] 

Again, in his first sermon on the Epistle of Jude, 
he says : " The multitude of them which truly 
believe, howsoever they be dispersed far and wide, 
each from other, is all One Body, whereof the 
Head is Christ ; One Building, whereof He is 
Corner-Stone ; in whom they, as the members of 
the Body, being knit, and, as the stones of the 
Building, being coupled, grow up to a man of per- 
fect stature, and rise to an holy Temple in the 
Lord. That which linketh Christ to us, is His 
mere love and mercy towards us. That which 
tieth us to Him, is our faith in the promised sal- 
vation revealed in the Word of Truth. That 
which unite th and joineth us among ourselves in 
such sort that we are now as if we had but one 
heart and one soul, is our love." [Serm. I. on St. 
Jude, Sec. 11.] 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 133 

To these beautiful conceptions and just delinea- 
tions of the true Church of Christ — and Hooker 
abounds in such — 1 have nothing to add, except 
that every word falls in, in perfect accord, with 
the view which I have already so largely illus- 
trated from the Bible and from our devotional 
standards. Hooker, one of the greatest divines of 
England, unquestionably held this view of the One 
Holy Catholic Church. 

2. Perkins, also, another of that great army of 
reformed divines in the Seventeenth Century, 
speaks thus : '' This Union to Christ maketh the 
Church to be the Church ; and by it the members 
thereof, whether they be in Heaven or in earth, 
are distinguished from all other companies whatso- 
ever." [Perkins' Works, Yol. I, p. 277.] He 
calls *' the Catholic Church militant," '' The num- 
ber of believers dispersed through the world, who 
are effectually called, and sanctified and preserved 
unto life everlasting." Of '' two sorts of men, 
professing religion," one of whom " do unfeignedly 
believe and are sanctified," while the other only 
" make show of faith but believe not ;" he says : 
'' Of the former doth the Catholic Church consist 
and not of the latter." These " are no members 
set into the Head of this Body, though they may 
seem to be." " This Catholic Church is invisible, 
and cannot by the eye of sense be discerned." It 



134 ^^^ LIVING TEMPLE. 

" cauiiot utterly perisli and be dissolved. All 
other congregations and particular churches, being 
mixed, may fail j yet this cannot be overcome." 
*' To this assembly, and no other, belong all the 
promises of this life and the life to come. It is 
the ground and pillar of the truth ; that is, the 
doctrine of true religion is always safely kept and 
maintained in it." [Perkins' Works, Yol. III., 
pp. 482-504.] These passages clearly develop 
the idea of the Church which I have presented, 
and the distinction between it and the visible 
mixed Church : and they also show that to the 
spiritual Church alone are the promises made, and 
that in it alone is the true indefectibility found. 

3. The following, from Bishop Hall shows that, 
in the same Church resides that diviue unity on 
which Christ so earnestly insists. " If from par- 
ticular visible churches you shall turn your eyes to 
the true, inward, universal company of God's elect 
and secret ones, there shall you see more perfectly 
the One Dove ; for what the other is in profession 
this is in truth ; that one baptism is here the true 
laver of regeneration ; that one faith is a saving 
reposal upon Christ ; that one Lord is * the Sa- 
viour of His Body.' No natural body is more 
ONE than this mystical ; one Head rules it j one 
Spirit animates it ; one set of joints moves it ; one 
food nourishes it ; one robe covers it. So is it 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS, 135 

01!^ E in itself, so one with Christ, as Christ is One 
with the Father." [Sermon on the Beauty and 
Unity of the Church.] '' The whole Church is the 
Spiritual Temple of God. Every believer is a 
living stone laid in those sacred walls. There 
is no place for any' loose stone in God's edifice ; 
the whole Church is oxe entire Bod3\" [Treatise 
on Christ Mystical, Ch. viii., Sec. 2.] 

4. Bishop Jeremy Taylor also, that, perhaps, 
most affluent of Christian orators, is full of the 
doctrine which I have unfolded. In his ' Dis- 
suasive from Popery,' he writes thus : " They 
who are indeed holy and obedient to Christ's laws 
of faith and manners, these are truly and perfectly 
the Church ; . . . the Church of God in the eyes 
and heart of God. For the Church of God are 
the Body of Christ ; but the mere profession of 
Christianity makes no man a member of Christ ; 
nothing but a new creature, nothing but a '' faith 
working by love,'' and keeping the commandments 
of God. . . . Hypocrites are not Christ's servants, 
and, therefore, not Christ's members, and, there- 
fore, no part of the Church of God ; but improp- 
erly and equivocally, as a dead man is a man ; all 
which is perfectly summed up in these words of 
St. Augustine, saying that ' the Body of Christ is 
not {bipartitum^ it is not,) a double Body ; all that 
are Christ's body shall reign with Him forever.' 



136 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

If by a Church we mean that Society which is 
really joined to Christ, which hath received the 
Holy Ghost, which is heir of the promises and of 
the good things of God, which is the Body of 
which Christ is the Head ; then the invisible part 
of the visible Church ; that is, the true servants 
of Christ are the Church ; ... to them only ap- 
pertain the Spirit and the truth, the promises and 
the graces, the privileges and advantages of the 
Gospel. . . . The faithful only and obedient are 
beloved of God. Others may believe rightly, but 
so do the devils, who are no parts of the Church ; 
. . . and it will be a strange proposition which 
affirms any one to be of the Church, for no other 
reason but such as qualifies the Devil to be so." 
* Those who are condemned by Christ (continues 
St. Augustine) for their evil and polluted con- 
sciences, are not of Christ's Body, which is the 
Church ; for Christ hath no damned members.^ 
Although, when we speak of all the acts and duties, 
of the judgments and nomenclatures, of outward 
appearances and accounts of law, we call the mixed 
society by the name of the Church ; yet, when we 
consider it in the true, proper and primary mean- 
ing, all the promises of God, the Spirit of God, the 
life of God, and all the good things of God, are 
peculiar to the Church of God in God's sense, in 
the way in which He owns it j that is, as it is holy, 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 137 

united to Christ, like to Him, and partaker of the 
Divine nature. The other are but a heap of men 
keeping good company, and calling themselves by 
a good name ; managing the external parts of 
union and ministry ; but, because they otherwise 
belong not to God, the promises no otherwise belong 
to them but as they may, and when they do, return 
to God. Here, then, are two senses of the word 
Church ; God's sense and man's sense ; the sense 
of religion and the sense of government ; common 
rites and spiritual union." [Diss, from Pop., Part 
II., B. L, Sect. 1, §§ 1, 2.] 

What Bp. Taylor intends by these distinctions is 
manifest. In ''God's sense," the Church is the 
great company of the saved ; in "man's sense," it 
is the aggregate of those who profess the Saviour. 
In "the sense of religion," it is the Church as seen 
by the spiritually enlightened religious eye ; in 
" the sense of government," it is the Church as seen 
by the legally discerning governmental eye. In 
" common rites," it is the Church as bound together 
in the communion of outward forms and ceremonies ; 
in "spiritual union," it is the Church, as knit 
together in the inward fellowship of Christ's mys- 
tical body. Much more from the same exuberant 
author, and to the same effect, might be cited ; but 
I must hasten to draw somewhat from other stores. 

5. Archbishop Usher, one of the great lights of 



138 ' THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

his age, in his ''Body of Divinity," puts this ques- 
tion : " What is meant by the Catholic Church ? " 
And his answer is : " The whole, universal company 
of the elect, that ever were, are, or shall be, gath- 
ered together in one body, knit together in one 
faith, under one Head, Jesus Christ. For God, in 
all places, and of all sorts of men, had from the 
beginning, hath now, and ever will have, an holy 
Church, which is therefore called the Catholic 
Church — that is, God's whole or universal assem- 
bly — because it comprehendeth the multitude of all 
those that have, do, or shall believe unto the 
world's end." 

In the same work he asks again : " Who are the 
true members of the Church militant on earth ? " 
And his answer is : "Those alone, who, as living 
members of the mystical body, are, by the Spirit 
and faith, secretly and inseparably conjoined unto 
Christ, their Head ; in which respect the true mil- 
itant Church is both invincible and invisible." 
[Bod. Div., 187, 189.] 

"The communion of saints," says he [in his Ser- 
mon before the House of Commons], " consists in 
the union, which we all have with one Head. For 
Christ, our Head, is the main foundation of this 
heavenly union." 

It is needless to point out the exact coincidence 
of all this with what I have already stated. Usher 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 139 

belongs to the grand Protestant host, who make 
the Church of God to consist of every true believer, 
who is gathered into Christ and saved, from the 
beginning to the end of time. 

6. In the same ranks, and eminent among the 
eminent, must be cited Dr. Thomas Jackson. In 
his " Treatise of the Church," which is '' true, holy 
and Catholic," he says : '' This Church is a true and 
real body, consisting of many parts, all really, 
though mystically and spiritually, united unto one 
Head ; — and, by their real union with one Head, 
are all truly and really united amongst themselves. 
. . . That this Church is a true Body, the Apostle 
hath left registered : " I rejoice in my sufferings for 
you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflic- 
tion of Christ in my flesh, for His Body's sake, 
which is the Church." Every one, then, is so far a 
member of Christ's Church, as he is a member of 
Christ's Body. He that is not, in some sense, a 
member of Christ's Body, can be, in no sort, a mem- 
ber of His Church. He that is a true, live member 
of one, is a true, live member of the other. He that 
is but an equivocal, analogical, hypocritical, or 
painted member of the one, is but an equivocal, 
analogical, hypocritical, or painted member of the 
other." [Treat, on the Holy Cath. Faith and Ch., 
pp. 18, 19. Phila. 1844] ' 

Arguing from a passage in the Epistle to the 



140 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

Ephesians, which I have already explained, he 
says : " Every member of the Church, or of Christ's 
Body, is more near, or dear, unto Him than our 
flesh is unto us, and more His own than our flesh is 
ours." [Treat, etc. p. 21.] 

Again, expressing himself in the strict form of a 
definition, he says : '' The Catholic Church, in the 
prime sense, consists only of such as are actual and 
indissoluble members of Christ's mystical body j or 
of such as have the Catholic faith not only sown in 
their brains, or understandings, but thoroughly 
rooted in their hearts." [Treat, etc., p. 152.] 

Again, " As He [Christ] is the true Temple, 
because the God-head dwelleth in Him j so all they, 
and only they, in whom He dwelleth by faith, are 
true temples of God and live members of the Cath- 
olic Church." [Works, vol. xii. p. 21.] ''This 
Church is not termed holy, a iimjori 'parte, from 
the greater part only ; every member of it is 
inherently holy." [Works, vol. 12, p. 26.] 

And again, "If the Ark, which Noah built, did 
save all such from the deluge as entered into it, 
how much more shall that holy and Catholic 
Church, which Christ hath built and sanctified by 
His most precious blood, give eternal life to all 
such as, in this world, become live members of it ! 
Such members they are made, not by external 
baptism, or by becoming members of the visible 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 141 

Church, but by iuternal grace, or sanctification." 
[Works, vol. xii. p. m:\ 

7. With this teaching agrees that of the great 
Dr. Barrow, the champion of England against the 
Papal supremacy. In his Discourse on the Unity 
of the Church, he says : " The invisible or spiritual 
Church is ' the whole body of God's people, that is, 
ever hath been, or ever shall be, from the beginning 
of the world to the consummation thereof, who hav- 
ing believed in Christ, and sincerely obeyed God's 
laws, shall finally, by the meritorious performances 
and sufferings of Christ, be saved." . . . "To this 
invisible Church, composed only of such as shall 
finally be saved, belong all the glorious titles and 
excellent privileges, attributed to the Church in 
Holy Scripture. This is ' the body of Christ,' the 
'Spouse of Christ,^ ' the House of God built on a 
rock, against which the gates of hell shall not pre- 
vail,' * the elect generation.' This is that one Body, 
into which we are all baptized by one Spirit ; the 
members whereof do hold a mutual sympathy and 
complacence ] which is joined to one Head, deriving 
sense and motion from it ; which is enlivened and 
moved by one Spirit. ... To this Church belongs 
peculiarly that unity, which is so often attributed 
to the Church. . . . This is the society, for whom 
Christ did pray ' that they all might be one.' . . . 
All Christians are united by spiritual cognation and 



142 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

alliance, as being all regenerated by the same cor- 
ruptible seed ; being alike born, not of blood, nor 
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
of God ; whence, as the sons of God and brethren 
of Christ, they become brethren to one another. 
. . . The whole Christian Church is one by its in- 
corporation into the mystical body of Christ, or as 
fellow subjects of that spiritual, heavenlj" kingdom, 
whereof Christ is the sovereign Head and Governor; 
whence they are governed by the same laws, oblig- 
ed by the same institutions and functions, partake 
of the same privileges, are entitled to the same pro- 
mises, and encouraged by the same rewards. So 
they make but one spiritual corporation, or repub- 
lic, whereof Christ is the sovereign Lord." [Works, 
Oxford Ed. Vol. YL pp. 497-499, and p. 597.] 

8. And, without further addition to this catalogue 
of witnesses, the " incomparable pen " of Bp. San- 
derson gives this as the first and most important of 
four senses in which the word. Church, is used : 
'' The whole company of God's elect, actually made 
members of Christ by virtue of an inward, effectual 
calling to faith and godliness. This we commonly 
call the invisible Church, or the Church of God's 
elect." [Disc, on Yisibility of the true Church. 
Hooker's Col. p. 213. Phila. 1844.] 

Such are a few of the many citations which might 
be made from that noble company of great Chris- 



TESTIMOXY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 143 

tians and great Divines, who adorned the two prin- 
cipal periods of our English Protestant Reforma- 
tion. They have made the present Chapter mono- 
tonous, in that they are but so many repetitions of 
one simple truth, or cluster of truths. Neverthe- 
less, these truths are of sufficient importance to 
justify the attention which they have received, 
and to relieve the discussion of tediousness with all 
candid weighers of evidence. I have not thought 
best often to interrupt the testimony by prolonged 
comments of my own ; and I now leave them just 
as they stand, to tell their own story and to give 
in their own witness. I need to say no more than 
this : they touch sustainingly every point which I 
have made in my argument ; and in such a way as 
to show that the ages to which they belong were 
exceedingly familiar with the views which they 
exhibit ; and that they were considered as present- 
ing cardinal points in the pure Protestant faith, 
which was then established and defended as well 
with the blood of the martyrs as with the pen of 
scholars. 

The Seventeenth Century doubtless witnessed 
the maintenance of different views of the Church in 
England ; but they were mostly the views of what 
have been termed the " Non-jurors f a name given 
to those, who, as adherents of the deposed and Popish 
James II., could not honestly take the oath of alleg- 



144 



THE LIVING TEMPLE, 



iance to his Protestant successors on the throne, 
William and Mary ; views, therefore, suspected 
in their very source, and weighing nothing with 
scrip turally enlightened Protestants against those 
of Cranmer and Ridley, Hooper and Nowell, Hook- 
er and Perkins, Hall and Taylor, Usher and Jack- 
son, Barrow and Sanderson ; to say nothing of the 
multitude of others, true and loyal children of the 
Reformation, who marched by their side, or fol- 
lowed in their train. 

In making this appeal to concurrent testimony, 
however, let me not be misunderstood. It is, in- 
deed, pleasant to find one's self in company which 
one likes. Nevertheless, the Christian teacher, 
provided he be sure of having Christ and His Word 
on his side, might well be content to march alone, 
with never so great a number of combatants array- 
ed against him. I have made the foregoing 
citations, not because they are the infallible 
authorities on which the argument for the 
Church, in her highest character, is founded, but 
because they are credible, or trustworthy witness- 
es to show that this argument is no novelty ; that I 
have not been broaching new and rash speculations 
of my own ; but that I have been moving in the 
track of a multitude of the soundest and holiest 
minds of the soundest and purest Churches of 
Christendom. There are those, who make tradi- 



TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 



H5 



tion an infallible authority in matters of faith and 
doctrine, and who hold this authority to be a neces- 
sary interpreter of the Word of the living God. 
They set up this tradition as an infallible judge on 
the theological bench, and bow to its oracular de- 
cisions with implicit faith. Not such, however, is 
the rank which we have been taught to assign to 
this speaker. We place it, not as judge on the 
bench, but as evidence on the witness's stand ; and 
we receive its statements so far only as they are 
harmonious with the only infallible rule of faith and 
doctrine, the everlasting Word of truth. 

Take this Word, then, to which our appeal has 
been made, and study it thoroughly. Take, also, 
the witnesses who have been called, and question 
them carefully. And then say, do these witnesses 
speak according to that Word in the matter of 
which they have been called to testify ? If so, 
give them your credence, not because they can add 
anything of certainty to that Word, but because 
they are the unimpeached sons of that Church, to 
which, as Episcopalians, we belong, and because 
they speak according " to the law and the testi- 
mony," which the Holy Spirit hath penned, and 
which secure to us the priceless heritage of the one 
true Saviour of "all faithful people," — of all holy 
believers. 



10 



PART II 



THE CHURCH, AS A VISIBLE BODY. 



THE CHUKCH, AS A VISIBLE BODY. 



CHAPTER I. 

SCRIPTUEE YIEW OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 

nr^O the Church, as, in its largest, highest sense, 
-*- One and Catholic, we have already directed 
our attention at considerable length. On the 
authority of the Bible, with the accordant testimony 
of our own standards, and of the standard writers 
of our own Protestant Reformation, we have seen 
it, in this sense, composed of '' all faithful people,'' 
or true believers ; of all who, by a living faith, 
" hold the Head " of the Body, which is Christ ; and 
who, by the Holy Ghost, are, in that faith sancti- 
fied and saved. This is "the Church of the first- 
born which are written in heaven " even while so- 
journing on earth ; and which, in the present life, 
do " come to God, the Judge of all, and to the 
spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the 
mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of 
sprinkling which speaketh better things than that 
of Abel." To this Church, made up of saints alive, 
and of the " spirits of the just made perfect," whose 
mediator and high priest is Christ, and whose 

(149) 



jjo THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

cleansing is in the precious blood of sprinkling, all 
true believers "come" the moment they are true 
believers ; they wait not for membership in this 
Church, but enter now into its holy oneness, its 
heavenly communion, its divine Catholicism. This 
is the Church, in what I have termed its true, spir- 
itual character ; or, what the old writers call " the 
invisible Church," because the bond of membership, 
which unites the believer to Christ, is invisible. 
• But, I have already said, there is a sense, in 
which the Church is visible ; and I now add, there 
is a sense, in which this visible Church is Catholic : 
and the question, upon which, in this Chapter, I 
propose to enter, is this : What is this visibly 
Catholic Church ? What and whom does it com- 
prehend ? The Comprehension of this Visible 
Church is the theme now before us. 

I am well aware of the difficulties with which 
this part of the subject is beset, and of the repug- 
nance, which, in certain quarters, is felt to the view 
which I am about to present. Still, as I am con- 
strained to regard this view as resting on the true 
sense of Scripture, and as being supported by the 
testimony of our own standards and standard wri- 
ters, I shall present it with a consciousness of fidel- 
ity to the vows which bind me to our own Church ; 
and hope, ere I close, to satisfy all who will read 
with candor and with patience, if not of the de- 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 151 

monstrable certainty of my positions, at least of 
their credible claim to the character of sound 
Protestant Episcopacy- 

I begin by distinctly acknowledging, that the 
view which we take of what is essential to the 
being of the Church, in its spiritual Catholicism, 
must be expected to govern the view which we 
take of what is meant by the comprehension of 
the Church in its visible Catholicism. In other 
words, the view which we take of the Church as 
the Body of '' the saved," in spiritual union with 
Christ the Saviour, naturally determines the view 
which we take of the Church as a visible organiza- 
tion of those who profess to believe in Christ. 

All Christians, then, hold undoubtingly, that 
there are such realities as the gift of the Spirit, 
union with Christ, and the pardon of sin. These 
realities make up the infinitely rich legacy of God 
to man in and through Christ Jesus. Without 
them there can be neither Church nor Christianity. 
The Church spiritual is composed exclusively of 
those who enjoy this legacy as the earnest of their 
full salvation. The Church visible is organized 
for the better activit}', and as an ordinary means 
of increasing the number of those for whom this 
legacy, is reserved. The difference among Chris- 
tians lies, not in admitting or denying this divine 
verity, but in settling the question how it is to be 



152 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

realized or received, by the disciples of Christ ; 
that is, not whether Grod ever saves a soul with- 
out any outward means, but what are the ordinary 
way and means in and by which He saves ? To 
recur, then, to the second and third definitions of 
the Church, which I gave at the opening of this 
discussion ; if, on the one hand, we hold that an 
Episcopally constituted ministry is essential to the 
very being of the Church, indispensably necessary 
as a *' ministerial intervention " between God and 
man, for the communication or conveyance of the 
gift of the Spirit, union with Christy and the pardon 
of sin, then it will necessarily follow that the Church, 
as visibly Catholic, can comprehend none but those 
who are in subjection to an Episcopal ministry ; 
because, on this supposition, through this ministry 
alone the gifts requisite to salvation are to be 
sought and realized ; and because, without these 
gifts, there will be no members of Christ to be 
organized into a visible Church. On this theory, 
the visible Church and the Episcopally organized 
Body are identical, mutually bounding each other, 
and excluding all besides. But if, on the other 
hand, we hold that the gift of the Spirit, union 
with Christ, and the pardon of sin, are direct 
bestowments from God upon the individual soul, 
received by faith in Christ, without any other 
necessary intervention than that of the Spirit and 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 153 

Divinely inspired Truth heard, read, or preached, 
then it will follow that the Church, as visibly 
Catholic, comprehends all those professing Chris- 
tians throughout the world, under whatever form 
of ministry organized, among whom the Gospel is 
truly held, Christ truly confessed, and His sacra- 
ments really administered, and to whom Grod 
vouchsafes the gift of the Spirit, union with Christ, 
and the pardon of sin. All such Christian organi- 
zations will belong to the visible Church Catholic, 
not because all their visible members are partakers 
of these unspeakable benefits, but because, among 
them there may be partakers of these benefits to 
be embodied in outward, visible organization. The 
real partakers of these benefits, as we have seen, 
constitute the one spiritual Church by virtue of their 
living union with Christ by faith, through the Spirit. 
The Church, in this sense, is nothing else than the 
whole Body of members, thus spiritually united 
with their Divine Head. Wherever, then, these 
members are embodied in an outward, visible 
organization, with a true confession of Christ, a 
true profession of His Gospel, and a common 
union in His sacraments, there, according to this 
view, will be a portion of the visible Church 
Catholic. The main difference between the true 
spiritual Church Catholic, and the Catholic Church 
visible or organized, consists in this, that the former 



154 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

is the Church, as God sees it, running through all 
time into great eternity ; while the latter is the 
Church, as man sees it, bounded by that little 
span of time to which he belongs. The organiza- 
tion of the visible Church is certainly a Divine 
provision or arrangement, designed to promote 
the best welfare, and the growing multiplication 
of spiritually live members of Christ ; but, from 
its very nature the application of that provision to 
the nature of man and to human society, results 
in this difference between the spiritual Church and 
the Church as made visible among men, that the 
former hath none but true and living members, 
while the latter may have, and generally has, 
many false and dead members. 

Which, then, of the two views thus re-intro- 
duced, are we to adopt ? To which do the Bible 
and our own standards bear their testimony ? For 
myself I am prepared to answer, that they lead, 
and decidedly, to the adoption of the latter. 

1. As bearing on this point, I think it quite sig- 
nificant, and, therefore, invite careful attention to 
the remark, that, when the Bible speaks of what 
is evidently the true and holy Church universal, 
" the Communion of saints," in which there are no 
unholy members, it speaks of this Church as one, 
without reference to times, places, or outward pecu- 
liarities, and in the most universal and unqualified 



TEE VISIBLE CHUEGH. 



55 



terms, as all holy and all in Christ ; but, when 
it speaks of the Church as a visible organization, it 
often speaks of this as many, as bounded by times 
and places, and as subject to all the diversities, 
mutations, and imperfections, which grow out of 
man's mixed and sinful state. Let me illustrate 
both parts of this remark. 

The texts which I have examined in the former 
part of this Treatise, will show what I mean by 
the former part of this remark. In those passages, 
the Bible speaks of the Church as the " one fold 
under one Shepherd ;" '' the whole family which is 
named in heaven and earth ;" the " one body " of 
Christ ; "the Bride, the Lamb's wife ;" the " holy 
Temple in the Lord," into which all, who are 
builded upon Christ by faith, do "grow." This is 
what Christ calls " My Church," against which " the 
gates of hell shall not prevail f the Church, to 
which "the Lord daily added the saved;" the 
" Church which is His body, the fullness of Him 
that filleth all in all;" "the Church in Christ 
Jesus" in which God is to be glorified " through- 
out all ages ;" " the Church which Christ loved," 
and for which He "gave Himself;" "the Church 
of the living God, the pillar and ground of the 
truth ;" the Church, whose members are all Christ's 
" brethren ;"" the general assembly and Church 
of the first-born, which are written in heaven." A.11 



156 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

this language, it will be remembered, is not only 
thus absolute, and perfectly unrestricted to time, 
place and outward peculiarity, but constantly in- 
termingled with the ascription, to all the members 
of the Church in this sense, of life, and growth, and 
holiness, and the certain inheritance of eternal 
glory. 

And what I mean by the latter part of the re- 
mark will be seen by simply collecting together 
a few of the very numerous passages, in which the 
Church, as visible and organized, is mentioned. 
They will bring before us a very different view. 
Take the following specimens : 

'* So ordain I in all the Churches." " Then had 
the Churches rest throughout all Judea." " If any 
man seem to be contentious, we have no such cus- 
tom, neither the Churches of God." "Let your 
women keep silence in the Churches." "As I have 
given order to the Churches of Galatia." " The 
Churches of Asia salute you." " Chosen of the 
Churches to travel with us." " Messengers of the 
Churches." "That which cometh upon me daily, 
the care of all the Churches." " John to the seven 
Churches which are in Asia." "There was a 
great persecution against the Charch which was at 
Jerusalem." " When they had ordained them eld- 
ers in every Church." " The Church at Babylon, 
elected together with you, saluteth you." " I wrote 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 157 

unto the Church ; but Diotrephes, who loveth to 
have the preeminence among them, receiveth us 
not." '* The Church that was at Antioch." " If, 
then, ye have judgments of things pertaining to this 
life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in 
the Church. I speak to your shame." " Cause 
that it (this epistle) be read in the Church Of the 
Laodiceans." "In eating, every one taketh before 
other his own supper ; and one is hungry and an- 
other is drunken. What ! Have ye not houses to 
eat and to drink in ? Or despise jq the Church 
of God, and shame them that have not?" ''Unto 
the Angel of the Church in Sardis write : .... I 
know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou 
livest, and art dead." And "Unto the Angel of 
the Church of the Laodiceans write : . . . I know thy 
works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would 
thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art 
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee 
out of my mouth." [1 Cor. 7 : 17 ; Acts 9 : 31 ; 
1 Cor. 11 : 16 ; 14 : 34 ; 16 : 1 ; 16 : 19 ; 2 Cor. 8 : 
19, 23 ; 11 : 28 ; Rev. 1:4; Acts 8 : 1 ; 14 : 23 ; 
1 Pet. 5 : 13 ; 3 John, ver. 9 ; Acts 13 : 1 ; 1 Cor. 
6 : 4, 5 ; Col. 4 : 16 ; 1 Cor. 11 : 21, 22 ; Eev. 3 : 
1 ; 3 : 14-16. 

Now, in reading these, (and a multitude of sim- 
ilar passages might be cited,) the exclamation 
instinctively rises : in what a very different at- 



158. THE LIVma TEMPLE. 

mosphere do we find ourselves from that wliich 
surrounded us while reading those before quoted ! 
There, all was absolute, universal, unqualified, in 
the language used. Here, all this is dropped ; and 
the language used becomes conditioned, limited, 
particular. There, we were evidently in the 
Church as it exists in Christ ; all calm, peaceful, 
holv, and full of the likeness and the foretastes of 
heaven. Here, we are unmistakably in the Church, 
as it exists in the World, full of mixture and of 
conflict ; an impure and imperfect, an unresting and 
disordered, a changing and suffering body. There, 
we were in the Church as as one, without a shadow 
of multiplicity. Here, we are in the Church as 
MANY, with manifold shades of diversity upon it. 
Here, in short, we find this multiform Church 
sometimes at rest, at others in persecution ; bound- 
ed by times and places ; modified by custom and 
order ; choosing and sending messengers ; writing 
and reading, sending and receiving epistles ; or- 
daining elders ; doing things as mixed human 
bodies are wont to do ; and, withal, affected by the 
doing of them too much as such bodies usually are 
affected ; having judgments, or proceedings at law, 
about the things of this life ; troubled with ambi- 
tions and contentions ; abusing sacred rites to pur- 
poses of gluttony and drunkenness ; having, some- 
times, a name to live though really dead ; frequently 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 159 

engaged in things beautiful and commendable, but 
not always clear of things for which they were to 
be shamed, and on account of which Christ put 
them loathingly away from Himself ! 

All this, indeed, does not show us what the 
Church, as visibly Catholic, comprehends ; but it 
does show us how very different a thing it is from 
the Church, as spiritually Catholic, " the communion 
of saints," one and holy in Christ Jesus ; and it 
gives us a starting-point in our inquiries, and shows 
us what, in various respects, we are to look for in 
the Church as visibly Catholic ; that we may expect 
to find it existing in many places under separate, 
independent organizations, divided and corrupted, 
exposed in parts to extinguishment, and even liable 
to be utterly rejected of God. 

2. Let us now look at another set of passages, 
and see whether we can gather any further light 
on the subject of our present inquiry. I refer to 
passages which speak of the Church as a " King- 
dom." These passages are numerous, and present 
the Church, apparently, both as a mixed body and 
as pure. I select two, which seem to present it in 
the former character. 

In Matt. 13 : 47, 48, Christ compares '' the king- 
dom of heaven" to '' a net, cast into the sea, and 
gathering of every kind ; which, when it was full, 
they drew to the shore, . . and gathered the good 



i6o THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

into vessels, but east the bad away." For the word 
'' kingdom," in this passage, we may substitute the 
word '' Church." The Church, then, is here liken- 
ed unto a net, cast into the sea ; and this net is 
evidently the visible Church Catholic, the king- 
dom organized under outward ministry, worship, 
and sacraments. The sea, into which this Church- 
net is cast, is this human world, bounded by the 
shores of time. The '' every kind," gathered by 
this net, are the countless multitudes, of all names, 
characters and conditions, the precious and the vile, 
which the visible Church gathers within its wide- 
sweeping organizations ; and *' the shore " to which 
the net is drawn for the grand, separating process, 
is the limit, at which this world's time is bordered 
by eternity, and casts up its millions to the judg- 
ment — showing, at last, of what a strangely mixed 
multitude the Church on earth has consisted, and 
how different it is, as standing before the eye of 
man, from what it is as it lives "in the eyes and 
heart of God," — to use Jeremy Taylor's strong 
figure. 

Again, in the same chapter, Matt. 13 : 24-30, 
Christ compares " the kingdom of heaven " to " a 
man, that sowed good seed in his field ;" adding, 
''but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed 
tares among the wheat, and went his way." The 
wheat and the tares sprang up and grew confusedly 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. i6i 

together until the harvest ; but (hen the reapers 
gathered the tares into bundles for the burning, 
but the wheat into the master's barn. 

In sense, this passage is evidently identical with 
that just explained ; though in dress, it is different. 
The kingdom is likened unto " a man who sow.^d 
good seed in his field;" but whose enemy, "while men 
slept, came and sowed tares among the wheat." 
The explanation given, Matt. 13 : 37-43, shows 
that the sower is "the Son of man," the Lord 
Jesus ; that the field is " the world," the lost race 
of men ; that the good seed are " the children of 
the kingdom," the saved members of Christ ; that 
the "tares are the children of the wicked one," the 
sinful, unsaved among them ; that the enemy is 
"the Devil," the adversary of God and man ; that 
the harvest is " the end of the world," the day 
when our race is to be judged : that the reapers are 
" the angels," ministers, executive of the decision 
of the Great Judge ; and that the ensuing process is 
the result of the Judgment, the separation of the 
unsaved from the saved, and the assignment to 
each of their fearfully distinct lot in the age of 
ages. 

From this explanation it is manifest that, in sow- 
ing none but " good seed," the desire of the Divine 
Sower is to gather from the world, and preserve 
in it none but a pure Church, and that the reason 
11 



i62 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

why His Church in this life is not pure is, that 
through the drowsiness of His watchmen the ene- 
my gets opportunity to sow tares among the wheat. 
In other words, the spiritual discernment of the 
watchmen of the Church was not long to retain 
the character of that early miraculous gift, the 
" discerning of spirits ;" and that, under the ordi- 
nary dispensation of the Christian economy, this 
discernment is neither so penetrating nor so wake- 
ful as always to detect the difference between true 
and false members of Christ. The purpose of the 
Adversary, therefore, succeeds, and the Church 
becomes mixed with lifeless members, hypocrites, 
formalists and self-deceived ; members " having 
a name to live while they are dead.'^ The visible 
Church is found to be a very different Body from 
that which its Divine Head desires to collect and 
preserve. The purposes of this Divine Head are 
not frustrated, but His desires fail in this life of 
their full realization. " The children of the kino-- 
dom " are gathered into the Church, but through 
the infirmity of our nature, the abuses of society, 
and the activity of the Adversary, others are gath- 
ered wiih them who arc not partakers with them, 
and the Church of " the saved " waits a future life 
for its full, perfect and separate development. 

Upon both of these parables, then, I remark : 
they plainly teach that the visible Church Catholic, 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 163 

in its true comprehension, must include all, of 
every name and character, whom the outward 
agencies of the Christian Dispensation gather out 
of the great sea of time, and out of the wide field 
of the world, into an outward profession of the 
Christian faith. As visible, the Church is a 
strangely mixed and multitudinous Body. These 
parables require us to comprehend in it the whole 
mighty mass surnamed of Christ, and living in a 
profession of His Gospel and under the regulation 
of His institutes, from side to side of the earth, 
and from end to end of time. These parables 
permit us to leave out none among whom the real 
'' children of the kingdom " are thus visibly pro- 
fessed and organized. 

3. We shall bring the subject into fuller light if 
we look a moment at the definition which makes 
Episcopacy essential to the very being of the 
Church. This definition rests on the theory that 
this Episcopacy is " a necessary ministerial interven- 
tion" between God and man for the conveyance of the 
gift of the Spirit, union with Christ, and the pardon 
of sin. The thoroughly unscriptural character of 
this theory is settled by this one consideration : 
that it virtually puts two mediators between God 
and His creatures, while the Bible puts but one. 
The Bible says, "There is one God and one Me- 
diator between God and men, the man Christ 



164 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

Jesus, '^ (1 Tim. 2 : 5,) and when it says *' there 
is one Mediator between God and men," it means 
that there is but one ; just as when it says, 
''There is one God," it means that there is but 
one. Against this text we may as wel] contend 
that there are, in any sense, two Gods, as say that 
there are, in any sense, two Mediators. But this 
the theory in question does practically say : First, 
it puts between men and God the one Mediator, 
Christ Jesus, and then it puts between men and 
Christ Jesus its second Mediator, the Priesthood 
of the Church, as a necessary intervention, with- 
out which there is no authorized way for the con- 
veyance of the gift of the Spirit, union with Christ, 
and the pardon of sin. It does not call the indi- 
vidual who officiates in this Priesthood, a mediator 
in the full sense in which Christ is the Mediator ; 
but it does consider this Priesthood itself as a 
Mediation, offering, for the purpose of conveying, 
the same sacrifice with Christ, and constituting the 
only authorized way^ of dispensing the inestimable 
blessings which that sacrifice has purchased. If 
the theory admit that these blessings are ever 
received without this secondary mediation, it still 
holds that, without this secondary mediation, men 
have no right to look for those blessings ; that, to 
such those blessings come, not by covenant, but 
without covenant ; that they are, in fact, " uncove- 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH, 165 

nanted mercies," such as possibly the heatlien may 
experience. 

This is, probably, one of the most unscriptural, 
as it is certainly one of the most dangerous tenets, 
ever held. The Bible everywhere confutes it, and 
history everywhere shows its perilousness. We 
might spend hours in showing how the Bible con- 
tinually holds up Christ alone as the only " Daj^s- 
man '' between God and His sinful creatures, that 
needs to " lay His hand upon both ;" how it as 
continually invites every poor, distressed, and 
broken-hearted sinner, to come immediately and 
directly to this Christ, whether in the recesses of 
the heart, in the stillness of the closet, or in the 
solitude of the desert ; and how it calls every man 
to bow his head, by faith, beneath the one pardon- 
ing and Spirit-giving hand, which this true Media- 
tor opens and stretches man-ward, while with the 
other He reaches and touches Grod-ward ; so that 
thus, the really connecting links being joined, life 
and all the communicable fullness of the Infinite 
Father, through the life-giving, mediating Son, 
may descend and abide upon His repenting and 
believing child ; they alone, with none and nothing 
between them ! And, having shown all this from the 
Bible, we might then go on, and spend other hours 
in showing how history repeatedly and warningly 
reveals the perilousness of interposing a mediat- 



,66 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

ing priesthood between the sinner and the Saviour, 
as a necessary, or as the only authorized, channel 
for the conveyance of spiritual gifts ; how this 
awfully arrogated power has been most awfully 
abused, and how, in the hands of such a being as 
man, it can never fail to be abused to the worst of 
purposes. We might go into all the details of this 
large branch of the subject, but it is not neces- 
sary ; a glance at it is enough. Both the Bible 
and history are against this theory. This theory 
erects, as necessary to the being of the Church, 
an intervention which the Bible does not necessi- 
tate, and against which history is a Heaven-re- 
corded warniug ; an intervention which, in the 
prerogatives claimed for it, the Bible sweeps clean 
away ; and of which, for the evils wrought by it, 
history will yet write the Heaven-inflicted extinc- 
tion. The visible Church Catholic cannot be 
bounded by this theory. All that is necessary 
to give being to the Church, — the gift of the Spirit, 
union with Christ, and the pardon of sin, — may be 
obtained, is obtained, without any such interven- 
tion as this theory supposes. Wherever profess- 
ing Christians, holding the true Word and Gospel 
of Christ, and organized under a visible ministry 
and sacraments in avowed obedience to Christ its 
only Head, are found, there a portion of the visi- 
ble Church Catholic is present, though it be a 



THE VISIBLE GHURCB. 167 

mixed society, existing under disadvantages more 
or less serious, and with the loss of some (hings 
in which the well-being of the Church might rea- 
sonably rejoice. In a word, and in its full com- 
prehension, the visible Church Catholic may be thus 
defined : The whole company on earth of those 
who profess faith in Christ, maintain the preach- 
ing of His Gospel, are united by the common bond 
of His sacraments, and are infected with no heresy 
subversive of the Christian faith. 

The mercy of a Saviour, the mission of the Spirit, 
and the message of the Word have been given for 
the great end of saving the souls of men from sin 
and eternal death. These infinite gifts, through a 
growingly full and distinct revelation, have been 
operating in the world from the earliest ages ; and 
the whole sum of their effects, in an^^ age, the 
whole company of the saved and of those who pro- 
fess the faith that saves, when outwardly embodied 
under necessary forms, constitutes the visible 
Church Catholic of that age. This Church is that 
whole company, existing at any particular time, 
under the forms necessary to their outward mani- 
festation ; and these forms are, the profession of 
the true faith, the preaching of the true Word, and 
a common union in the sacraments, which Christ 
Himself hath ordained. These are the things in 
which their visibility, as a Church, consists. Their 



1 68 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

persons ma}^ be made visible by flesh and blood ; 
but their Church-character cannot be made visible 
without these necessary forms. It must be borne 
in mind, however, that, under this its outward or- 
ganization, the Church is no longer the one pure 
and holy Church of Christ, such as He desires it to 
be, — but the whole congregation of outward pro- 
fessors of Christ, mixed, imperfect, and more or 
less defiled with error, worldliness and sin. It is 
the '' net," filled with " every kind,'' '' the good and 
the bad :" — the '* kingdom," in a field thick sown 
and growing both with " wheat" and with "tares." 
From all this it follows, that no one visible or- 
ganization can, by itself, and to the exclusion of 
others, be called the Church, the Catholic Church. 
The Church of Rome is not the Catholic Church ; 
nor is that of Greece, or that of England, or all 
these together, the Catholic Church. This term, as 
we now seek its comprehension, covers the whole 
visible company of Christ's professed followers on 
earth, so far as they hold and proclaim the true 
faith, and are united by the common bond of 
Christ's sacraments. The very signification of the 
word, Catholic, points to this comprehension of the 
visible Church, and to nothing narrower. "Catho- 
lic " means, " the whole," not any part or parts, — 
'* Universal," not particular, — and it is an unwar- 
rantable assumption in any one organization, or in 



THE VISIBLE CEURGE. i6g 

any number of members, short of "the whole," to 
call itself, or themselves, "The Catholic Church." 
This comprehends the whole, the universal, com- 
pany of Christ's professed followers, who hold .to 
Him as Head, to His truth, in the main uncorrupt, 
and to His sacraments, in all things necessary to 
their being. 

This, we think, is the doctrine of our Nineteenth 
Article, when rightly understood. That article de- 
fines "the visible Church" as " a congregation of 
faithful men in which the pure Word of God is 
preached, and the sacraments be duly administered 
according to Christ's ordinance, in all things that 
of necessity are requisite to the same." The only 
difficulty in understanding the definition lies in the 
word, " FAITHFUL." It is the " visible Church " that 
is defined ; and yet it is defined as "a congregation 
of FAITHFUL mcu ;" which, in the language of the old 
writers, means, " a congregation of true believers.'^ 
And if the definition ended here, it would evident- 
ly make the visible Church identical with the 
Church of " the saved." But the definition does not 
end here. It goes on to say : that this is a congre- 
gation, " in which the pure Word of G-od is preach- 
ed, and the sacraments be duly administered ac- 
cording to Christ's ordinance, in all things that of 
necessity are requisite to the same." And these, 
it will be remembered, are the verj^ things in which 



I70 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

the visibility of the Church, as a Church, consists. 
The article, then, must I think, be explained thus : 
"The Church," in the desire of her Divine Head, is 
'* a congregation of true believers ;" but when or- 
ganized and made visible under ministry and sac- 
raments, then, through the infirmity of our nature 
and of human society, and through the evil activity 
of the Adversary, it becomes, as we see it, mixed, 
imperfect, and defiled with more or less serious 
errors; the "bad" with the " good,'^ the "tares" 
with the " wheat." The visible Church of any age 
has in it all " the faithful men" of that age ; and it 
ought to have none other ; but, through human im- 
perfection in preaching the Word and applying the 
sacraments, — an imperfection intensified by the in- 
sidious malice of the devil, — it contains many 
others, who belong to it in its outward organiza- 
tion, while inwardly they are none of Christ's. 

Some, indeed, would avoid the difficulty in this 
Nineteenth Article by explaining the phrase, " visi- 
ble Church," as identical with that of the "commun- 
ion of saints " in the Creed ; holding that all the 
members even of the visible Church are really re- 
generate and sanctified followers of Christ. But to 
sustain this view they are forced to hold another, viz : 
that impenitent, unconverted, and ungodly persons, 
though baptized and partakers of " the outward and 
visible sign " in the Lord's supper, are yet, in no 



THE VISIBLE CHURCK 171 

sense, members even of "the visible Church." This 
Church, they contend, is " a congregation" of exclu- 
sively '' faithful men ;'' — in the sense of the article, 
godly believers. 

This explanation, however, is opposed to the 
sense of our great Protestant divines. Even the 
citations, formerly made from these divines, though 
made for another purpose, show, nevertheless, that 
they considered baptized communicants, though 
impenitent and ungodly, yet as really members of 
the visible Church ; not, indeed, of the Church '' in 
God's sense," — to use Bishop Taylor's language, — 
but, of the Church "in man's sense." That there 
is a sense, in which these spiritually dead mem- 
bers do not belong to the Church, is very true. It 
is equally true, however, that there is another 
sense in which they do belong to the Church, at 
least until cut off by discipline. And this sense, 
according to the writers just referred to, is that of 
the Church visible. 

Moreover, the explanation in question is evi- 
dently inconsistent with the teaching of Christ 
himself in His figure of " the Vine and the branch- 
es." "I am the vine," says He, "ye are the 
branches." John 15: 5. "Every branch in me 
that beareth not fruit. He taketh away." John 15 : 
1. In this language Christ and the Yine are evi- 
dently a figure of the Church. And the teaching 



172 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

of the language can be nothing less than this ; that 
there is a sense, in which there are lifeless mem- 
bers of this Church ; dead branches on that Vine ; 
whose doom is — if they become not living and fruit- 
bearing — to be cut off and cast away. And this 
sense, again, can be none other than that of the 
visible Church. It is important to add, that this 
brings the teaching from the metaphor of the Vine 
and its branches into harmony with that already 
found in the parables of the "net cast into the 
sea,'^ and " the tares of the field." 

1 see no good reason, therefore, for giving up 
the ordinary acceptation of the phrase, ''visible 
Church;" understanding b}^ it, the whole mixed 
company in all the world of those who profess the 
faith of Christ, and maintain the preaching of His 
Gospel and the administration of His sacraments, 
in all things necessary to the same. 

That our Nineteenth Article intends to give the 
visible Church this comprehension is evident from 
the fact, that it says nothing of what constitutes the 
essence of the ministry, or of what is necessary to 
'' the due administration of the sacraments accord- 
ing to Christ's ordinance." It leaves both these 
points at large and undetermined ; and I suppose 
it is hazarding nothing to say, that it would be im- 
possible to bring our Church up to the point of 
decreeing, through her authoritative councils, that 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 173 

there can be do Christian ministry at all, other 
than that Episcopally conL5tituted ; and no Christian 
sacraments at all, other than those Episcopall}^ ad- 
ministered. Such a decision she has never, in any 
way, promulged. Such a sentence she can never 
be made authoritatively to pass. She proclaims 
herself a true Church, and leaves others to the 
liberty of proclaiming the same for themselves, and, 
if they can, of proving what they proclaim. 



CHAPTER II. 

OUR STANDARDS AND STANDARD WRITERS ON THE 
VISIBLE CHURCH. 

THE Christian Faith is exactly comprehensive of 
the Christian Church. The former is the true 
boundary of the latter. When this faith, true and 
sound, is received into the heart, and produces a 
living and holy union with Christ, it constitutes a 
member of the true, spiritual Church Catholic. 
And when this faith, in the main whole and uncor- 
rupt, is received into the understanding, and carried 
out into profession under appropriate and necessary 
forms, it constitutes a member of the real visible 
Church Catholic. And thus, in both senses, the 
Christian faith is the only true comprehension of 
the Christian Church. This faith, or the substance 
of what Christ requires to be believed, is the all- 
essential thing in this inquiry. A renunciation of 
this faith is, to all intents and purposes, a renunci- 
ation of the Church. Hence, near the close of the 
last Chapter, in defining the Church, in its external 
Catholicism, it was said to comprehend the whole 

(174) 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 175 

visible company on earth, of those who profess the 
faith in Christ, maintain the preaching of His Gospel, 
are united by the common bond of sacraments, and 
are infected with no heres^y subversive of the Chris- 
tian faith. This last mark was added because a 
heresy, which subverts the Christian faith, may 
well be regarded as effecting a severance from the 
Christian Church. In the days of the Apostles, we 
learn from Acts, 16 : 5, that "The Churches were 
established in the faith." A subversion of the faith 
is the opposite to establishment in the faith. It is, 
so far as it extends, a subversion of the Church 
itself. For the same reason, a corruption of the 
faith, if it amount not to its subversion, is but a 
corruption of the Church. It amounts not to its 
subversion. Save the substance of the faith, in its 
outward profession, and you save the substance of 
the Church, in its visible Catholicism. 

This, as I have already remarked, is the view of 
the visible Church, so far as we can trace it, in the 
teachings of the Bible. I add, this is the view, 
taken b}^ our own standards and standard writers ; 
a remark, to the illustration of which I now invite 
attention. 

I. OUR STANDARDS. 

1. In looking at our standards, then, we may re- 
fer again, though at the risk of a little repetition, to 



176 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

our XTXth Article. It defines " the visible Church" 
to be, as to its essence, ''a congregation of faithful 
men ; '^ and then, as to its visibility, a congregation 
" in which the pure Word of God is preached, and 
the sacraments be duly administered according to 
Christ's ordinance, in all those things that, of 
necessity, are requisite to the same." Wherever 
the great "congregation" exists in profession, 
under the preaching of the true G ospel, and a due 
administration of the sacraments in all things neces- 
sary thereto, there, according to this article, " the 
visible Church of Christ " exists. What is neces- 
sary to the due administration of the sacraments the 
article, indeed, does not decide. Individual writers 
may be found, in sufficient numbers, and living 
men, in numbers more sufficient still, who strenu- 
ously contend that, to the very essenc3 of the sac- 
raments, an Episcopal ministry is necessary ; so 
that, without this ministry, there can be no such 
thing as a Christian sacrament But this decision 
our Church has not pronounced ; and, I repeat, can- 
not be made to pronounce. So far is she from the 
opinion, which such a decision would involve, that 
her highest authorities in England, as well as in 
America, following herein the voice of antiquity, 
have decided that even lay-baptism, however ir- 
regular, is, nevertheless, valid and not to be repeat- 
ed. Her article, therefore, does not teach that 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 177 

"the visible Church of Christ" is bounded by the 
limits of an Episcopal ministry and sacraments. It 
is one thing to say that non-episcopal bodies, as 
outward organizations, are, in the full sense, regular 
Churches ; and quite another to affirm that they 
belong to the one visible, Catholic Church of Christ. 
The former, an Episcopalian needs not to assert. 
The latter it behoves him steadfastly to hold. 

2. But leaving the teachings of the Article, let us 
adduce other testimony. Following the order ob- 
served when speaking of the spiritual Church, I cite, 
first, from 

I. OUR DEVOTIONAL STANDARDS. 

1. In our communion service, is the prayer " For 
the whole state of Christ^s Church militant." This 
I understand to mean, the whole Church on earth, 
visible and invisible, spiritual and mixed j and I 
understand it to speak of this Church as militant, 
or warring, against those leagued foes without, the 
world, the flesh and the devil, as well as against 
those deadly enemies within, sin, error and super- 
stition ; foes, that trouble the Church as spiritual • 
and enemies that defile the Church as mixed. Of 
whom, then, according to this solemn and authori- 
tative formula, does this " whole state of Christ's 
Church militant," so far, at least, as it is ta he con.- 
12 



178 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

sidered visible, consist? Hear the witness. It 
consists of all "who do confess His holy name ;" 
not only of those who really and savingly believe 
in that holy name, but of all who profess to believe 
in it ; though, in so many instances, their faith lives 
no where but in profession. For all these, and 
none less, the prayer goes up that they may, as " a 
consummation most devoutl}^ to be wished," be 
''inspired with the spirit of truth, unity and con- 
cord ; '^ or that they "may agree in the truth of 
His holy Word, and live in unity and godly love ; '' 
and that their "Bishops and other ministers may, 
both by their life and doctrine, set forth His true 
and lively Word, and rightly and duly administer 
His holy sacraments." This testimony is very 
emphatic. The "universal Church" of Christ is 
expressly detined as consisting of " all who do con- 
fess His holy name ; " and its visibility is here, as in 
the Article, considered as consisting in this confes- 
sion, under the appointed forms of the preaching of 
the ^' true and lively Word," and of the " right and 
due administration of the holy sacraments." It is 
true, indeed, that more is expressed here than in 
the Article. There is here a distinct intimation that 
WE, for ourselves, have adopted an Episcopal minis- 
try, or a ministry of Bishops ; but this is without 
any claim that such a ministry is indispensably 
necessary to the being of the sacraments. We ask 



TEE VISIBLE CHURCH. 179 

grace, not merely for ''all Bishops, priests and 
deacons," but for "all Bishops and other ministers ;" 
and I think that this peculiar turn of the expression 
must have been intended to include somewhat more 
than a simply Episcopal ministry, ^s a petition 
for '' Bishops and other ministers," it must I appre- 
hend, be considered as a prayer for ''Bishops and 
ALL other ministers," even for all who minister to 
THE ALL "who do coufcss Christ's holy name ; " to 
THE ALL who make up " the whole state of Christ's 
Church militant." This prayer, and the ancient 
liturgies, in which it stands, were doubtless framed 
in times, when there was none but an Episcopal 
ministry to pray for : but the remark is most im- 
portant, that the prayer was adopted into our 
communion service, both in England and this coun- 
try, at a time when our Church authorities had 
come to the knowledge and to the acknowledgment 
of the fact, that there were then, in the Church 
militant, many ministers of Christ, who had never 
been Episcopally ordained. 

2. Indeed, this freedom of our Prayer-Book lan- 
guage from all particularizing, its large generalness 
of expression, is very remarkable. I cite a second 
instance of it from our last prayer at " The Institu- 
tion of Ministers." We there pray for " the Church, 
built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cor- 



i8o THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

Qer-stone, ..... that, by the operation of the 
Holy Grhost, all Christians may be so joined 
together in unity of spirit, and in the bond of peace, 
that they may be an holy temple, acceptable unto 
God.^' This language is broad as possible. It 
knows no " foundation " to the Church narrower 
than ''Christ," and no 'Hemple" for the visible 
Zion smaller than that which contains '* all Chris- 
tians." In one sense, this is a prayer of sorrows. 
It looks sadly on this world-wide Church of Christ, 
and sees it agitated, divided, and, in many things, 
defiled ; and, at the sight, its petitions go up amid 
sighs and tears. In another sense, however, it is a 
prayer of faith. It looks on this Church universal 
through the sweet light of promise, and, in the 
power of strong, hopeful entreaty, sees the time 
when the true " unity," that "of the Spirit," and the 
true ''bond," that of " peace," shall embrace and 
bind together in love "all Christians," "all who 
profess Christ's holy name ;" and when thus the 
Church visible shall, as nearly as earth will allow, 
become identical with the Church spiritual ; and, at 
the sight, its petitions go up, if amid sighs and 
tears, amid smiles and thankfulness as well. It be- 
comes, truly, a prayer into which every large-heart- 
ed disciple of Christ delights to put his whole soul 
of believing, trustful, and fervent intercession. 
3. A third instance of this same large general- 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH, i8i 

ness of language when speaking of the visible 
Church, may be cited from the prayer ''for all con- 
ditions of men." We there " pray for the holy 
Church universal, that all, who profess and call 
themselves Christians, may, by the guid- 
ance and governance of God's good Spirit, .... 
be led into the way of truth and hold the faith in 
unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in right- 
eousness of life." This prayer, be it remembered, 
was never in any of the ancient liturgies. It is of 
English and Protestant origin. And it was framed, 
it is alleged, by good Bishop Sanderson of Lincoln. 
His views of the comprehension of the visible 
Church are, as we shall presently see, well known ; 
and there can be no doubt, that, when this formula 
speaks of '* the holy Church universal " as embrac- 
ing ''all who profess and call themselves Chris- 
tians," it means to include not only all the ancient 
Episcopal communions, but also all the then modern 
Reformed and Protestant bodies, though many of 
these were not Episcopally constituted. It means, 
says our American Bishop Brown ell, in his Com- 
mentary on the Book of Common Prayer, " The 
Oriental, the Greek, the Latin, the Reformed, with 
every denomination of Christians." When the 
English Church, and our American Episcopal after 
it, adopted this prayer into their solemn liturgy, 
they not only prayed, (with the heart of every true 



i82 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

follower of Christ saying, "Amen/*') that ''the faith 
may be held in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, 
and in righteousness of life,^' but also taught, (with 
whatever of authority they possess,) that " the 
Church Universal " includes, amid whatever of pres- 
ent agitation, division and corruption, still, in the 
hope of future peace, unity and purity, "all who 
profess and call themselves Christians." The " pro- 
fession" of the Christian faith ; the " calling them- 
selves" of Christ ; the putting themselves forth be- 
fore the world under the accustomed forms of Chris- 
tian profession, — the preaching of the Gospel and a 
due reception of Christ's sacraments, are here, by 
specially Protestant witnessing, set forth as the 
true comprehending lines of the whole visible body 
of Christ. 

4. A fourth instance, of this Catholicity of our 
Book of Common Prayer, is found, not, indeed, in 
its devotional language, but in its historic preface ; 
an official document of the highest consideration, 
set forth by authority of our highest Council, the 
General Convention of 1789, when publicly sanc- 
tioning the use of our devotional forms. The pas- 
sage, to which I refer, is this : " When, in the 
course of divine Providence, these American States 
became independent with respect to civil govern- 
ment, their ecclesiastical independence was neces- 
sarily included ; and the different religious denom- 



TEE VISIBLE GHURGH. 183 

inations of Christians in these States were left at 
full and equal liberty to model and organize their 
respective Churches, and forms of worship and 
discipline, in such manner as they might judge most 
convenient to their future prosperity, consistently 
with the laws and constitution of their country." 

Here, the Non-Episcopal denominations of the 
United States are acknowledged to be "Churches.^' 
It is not admissible to say that the word, " Church- 
es,'^ is here used loosely and by courtesy ; or that, 
while the term, Church, belongs exclusively to us, 
the phrase, ''Religious Denominations of Chris- 
tians," is the appropriate description of all the 
others. The language quoted, is not that of mere 
careless politeness ; it is that of strictly serious in- 
tent ; as might be made abundantly manifest from 
our Church literature at that period : particularly^ 
from the writings of Bishop White, and of Drs. 
William Smith and Charles H. Wharton, the most 
eminent divines in the General Convention of 1789. 
As to the other part of the suggestion, I know it 
has become fashionable in certain quarters to re- 
strict the term, Church, to ourselves, and to apply 
that of "Religious Denominations of Christians'^ 
to others. But this is trifling with the subject. 
Our highest Council, that which first gave form to 
our Church in this land, applies this description to 
ourselves, as well as to others. When it says^. 



1 84 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

'' The different Religious Denominations of Chris- 
tians in these States were left at full and equal lib- 
erty to model and organize their respective Chur- 
ches," it includes ourselves among the rest ; it 
calls us, as well as others, *'a Religious Denomina- 
tion of Christians.'' And therefore, when it declares 
that all these denominations "had full and equal 
right to model and organize their respective 
Churches," it admits that they are all Churches ; 
it asserts the essence of Church-character to the 
other denominations as seriously and as strictly as 
it claims the essence of that character for our- 
selves. I say, not that it concedes to them the 
same regularness and fullness of Church- character, 
which in other documents we claim for ourselves ; 
but that it asserts to them the essence of that 
character as seriously and as strictly as it claims 
the essence of that character for ourselves. Any oth- 
er inference makes our Church an insincere, equivo- 
cating courtier, when speaking of the things of God 
in her highest, most dignified capacity, on one of the 
greatest, most solemn crises of her history. She 
hath not thus degraded herself She is erect in 
high-minded integrity. She has seriously asserted 
to Non-Episcopal religious denominations of Chris- 
tians the essence of Church-character. And this 
is one reason why, at least until she loses her Pro- 
testantism, she cannot be made to utter the author- 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 185 

itative decision, that the Episcopacy is essential to 
the being of a Church, or that the Non-Episcopal 
denominations are no Churches. 

So far, then, as our standards are concerned, the 
testimony may be considered sufficient, in favor 
of the view which I have given of the visible Church 
Catholic, as comprehending "the whole company 
on earth of those who profess the Christian faith, 
maintain the preaching of the Gospel, are united 
by the common bond of sacraments, and are infect- 
ed with no heresy subversive of the Christian faith !'' 
I proceed, therefore, to examine the testimony of 

II. OUR STANDARD WRITERS. 

This will be found luminous on the point, of 
which I am now treating. The standard writers, 
now referred to, belong, of course, to the country, 
in which our Protestant Reformation was effected ; 
but they flourished, not in the century which wit- 
nessed that Reformation, but in that which imme- 
diately followed ; they are the writers of the Seven- 
teenth Century. 

1. I quote, first from Dr. Thomas Jackson of 
New Castle, who wrote in the early part of that 
century, and who has already been mentioned as 
one of the most eminent divines of that prolific 
age. In his "Treatise of the Holy Catholic Faith 



iSe THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

and Church," after defining ''The Church in its 
prime," or spiritual " sense," he uses this language : 
*'In a secondary, analogical sense, every present 
visible Church, which holdeth the holy Catholic 
faith, without which no man can be saved, pure 
and undefiled with the traditions or inventions of 
men, may be termed a holy Catholic Church." 
''Who they be which profess the unity of that 

faith, is visible and known to all such as 

either hear them profess it, viva voce, or can read 
and understand their profession of it given in writ- 
ing." [Treat, on the Holy Cath. Faith and Church, 
p. 152. Phila. 1844.] And, to show that, by the 
phrase, "every present visible Church," he does 
not mean every Episcopally organized Church only, 
he proceeds to speak of " such a communion " as 
existed "between the Orthodoxal professors of the 
English or other Reformed Churches ;" [Treat, etc., 
p. 154,] and of " Luther, and Christian princes, by 
God's appointment, uniting the visible members of 
the holy Catholic Church into visible Churches." 
[Treat, etc., p. 158.] In those days, indeed, of 
close searching into the nature of things spiritual 
and ecclesiastical, this class of eminent divines had 
no thought of shutting the Reformed Continental 
Churches, though deprived of the Episcopacy, out 
of the pale of visible Catholicism. Hence Bishop 
Hall even while lamenting their want of Episcopal 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 187 

order, yet, in view of their holding the true faith 
of the Gospel, affectionately terms them "The 
Church of England's dearest sisters abroad ;" [Ser- 
mon on Noah's Dove;] meaning, by ''sisters," 
sister Churches ; for the sister of a Church must be 
herself a Church. Jackson's definition, then, of the 
visible Church spreads itself over the whole ground 
which we have been surveying. To entitle the 
visible Church, indeed, to the name, "holy," it 
must, according to him, hold " the Catholic faith " 
" pure and undefiled." But, though a particular 
Church hold this faith more or less corrupted "by 
traditions and inventions of men," and thus ceases 
to deserve the name " holy," yet, so long as it does 
not, by heresy, subvert the foundations of the faith, 
it does not cease to be a portion of the visible 
Church Catholic on earth. This Church may and 
does exist in a state far from pure ; and can be 
called holy, for no other reason than because it 
holds the Truth which is holy, and is designed to 
minister to the spiritual growth of that hidden peo- 
ple who are holy. 

2. I quote, second. Bishop Sanderson of Lincoln, 
whom I before cited as the alleged author of our 
" Prayer for all Conditions of Men," and who fur- 
nishes a very apposite definition of the visible 
Church. Having given that, formerly quoted, of 
the spiritual or invisible Church, he immediately 



i88 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

adds : ^' The whole company, of all those through- 
out the world, who, by their doctrine and worship, 
do outwardly make profession of the Name of 
Christ ; this we call the universal visible Church, 
or the Catholic Christian Church." And then to 
show in what various conditions this universal visi- 
ble Church may exist, and what utterly subverts 
it ; he says : " A total and utter defection from the 
whole faith of Christ, in doctrine and in worship, 
destroys the very being of a Church, and maketh 
it no Church at alL But a defection from the purity 
of faith doth not take away the being of a Church ; 
(it remains still a true Church) but only maketh it 
an impure and corrupt Church, and, so far forth, a 

false Church Corruptions in doctrine and 

worship, as they are greater or lesser, so they 
make a Church more or less, comparatively, cor- 
rupt." [Disc, on Yisibility of the True Church, 
pp. 213-215. Phila. 1844.] The same writer 
speaks repeatedly of '' the Protestant Churches," 
by which he means that of England and those of 
the Continent, as standing together on the " sub- 
stance of faith," being " more or less reformed 
in doctrine and worship," and constituting ''par- 
ticular visible Churches." [Disc, etc., pp. 222- 
224.] 

It is needless to point out, by extended comment, 
the entire coincidence of this author with the view 



TEE VISIBLE CHURCH. 189 

which I have given of the visible Church Catholic. 
He makes a clear distinction between what is essen- 
tial to the being and what is important to the well- 
being of this Church. 

3. I quote, third, from Dr. Cosin, who became 
afterwards Bishop of Durham, and who, like Bishop 
Hall, was ever one of the " staunchest of Church- 
men." He calls the French Protestants, in the 
middle of the Seventeenth Century, "Reformed 
Churches," and discountenances a refusal of their 
communion, when the plea urged for sach refusal 
was, that, " for want of Episcopal ordination, they 
had no order at all ;" that is, no ministerial orders. 
'* If, upon this ground," says he, "we renounce the 
French, we must, for the very same reason, re- 
nounce all the ministers of Germany besides ; . . . 
and then, what will become of the Protestant 
party ? .... If the Church and kingdom of Eng- 
land have acknowledged them," (as they have,) 
" why should we, who are but private persons, 
utterly disclaim their communion ?" [Letter to 
Cordel, Hooker's Collection, p. 234. Phila. 1844.] 
This, considering the general views of the author 
from whom it comes, is perhaps one of the most 
striking testimonies to the truth, that though, in 
our judgment highly important to the well-being, 
yet Episcopal ordination is not indispensable to 
the being of the visible Church. 



190 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



4. I quote, fourth, from " the judicious Hooker.'^ 
In his Ecclesiastical Polity, he uses this strong lan- 
guage : "If, by external profession, they be Chris- 
tians, then they are the visible Church of Christ ; 
and Christians, by external profession, they are all, 
whose mark of recognizance hath in it those things, 
which we have mentioned, (one Lord, one faith, one 
baptism) yea, although they be impious idolaters, 
wicked heretics, persons excommunicable." And 
then, to the question, whether it be possible for 
such persons, belonging as they really do ''to the 
Synagogue of Satan,'^ to belong also " to the Church 
of Jesus Christ,^' he answers, in the very spirit of 
the present argument, "Unto that Church which is 
His mystical Body," it is "not possible " for such 
persons to belong : " because that Body consisteth 
of none but only true Israelites, true sons of Abra- 
ham, true servants and saints of God :" but, " of 
the visible body and Church of Jesus Christ, those 
may be and often are " members. [Reel. Pol., B. 
III. § 1.] According to this authority, then, 
and with an emphatic a fortiori^ they belong to the 
visible Church, who are neither "impious idola- 
ters" nor "wicked heretics," but who, in their 
outward profession, hold the Truth in the main un- 
corrupt, and, in their outward lives, walk in be- 
coming consistency with their profession ; albeit, in 
the order of their ministry, they lack somewhat 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 191 

which we deem requisite to the fullness of the Apos- 
tolic pattern. 

5. I quote, fifth, from Bishop Hall, whose lan- 
guage is equally strong. He says : "It is not the 
variety of by-opinions, that can exclude them from 
having their part in that one Catholic Church, and 
their just claim to the ' communion of saints.' 
While they hold the solid and precious foundation, 
it is not the hay, or stubble, which they lay upon 
it, that can cut them off from God and His Church." 
And then, after lamenting, in the most impassioned 
strain, the numerous errors and dissentions which 
have crept in among Christians, he thus proceeds 
to assert that they do not destroy the real oneness 
of the visible Church: "Notwithstanding all this 
hideous variety of vain and heterodoxal concep- 
tions, He, who is the Truth of God and the Bride- 
groom of His Church, hath said : "My Dove, my 
undefiled, is One ;" one in the main, essential, fund- 
amental verities necessary to salvation ; though 
differing in divers mis-raised corollaries, inconse- 
quent inferences, unnecessary additions, feigned 
traditions, unwarrantable practices. The Body is 
one, though the garments differ ; yea, rather, for 
most of these, the garment is one, but differs in the 
dressing ; handsomely and comely set out by some, 
disguised by another. Neither is it, or ever shall 
be in the power, of all the fiends of hell, the pro- 



192 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

fessed make-baits of the world, to make God^s 
Church other than one ; which were, indeed, utterly 
to extinguish and reduce it to nothing ; for the 
unity and entity of the Church can no more be di- 
vided than itself .... Those that agree in the 
main principles of religion, Christ is pleased to 
admit, for matter of doctrine, as members of that 
body wherof He is the Head, and if they admit not 
of each other as such the fault is in the uncharita- 
bleness of the refusers, no less than in the errors 
of the refused. If any vain and loose stragglers 
will needs sever themselves, and wilfully choose to 
go ways of their own, let them know that the union 
of Christ's Church shall consist entire without them. 
This great ocean will be one collection of waters, 
when these drops are lost in the dust." [Treat, of 
Christ Mystical, chap. vii. § 2.] 

This language, like the prayer in our communion 
office, evidently embraces " The whole state of 
Christ's Church militant" in time, spiritual and 
mixed ; and it goes on the ground that there is a 
sense, in which this whole Church is one, notwith- 
standing its divisions and imperfections. "The 
Bod}^ is one though the garments differ : yea, rather, 
for the most of these, the garment is one, but dif- 
fers in the dressing." In other words, even as visi- 
ble, the Church is one, though it hath many parts, 
and though the various parts have various external 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 193 

order and form ; or rather, most, though not all, of 
the parts have but one garment of outward order 
and form. Most, though not all, have an Episco- 
pacy in the ministry, and a liturgy in worship ; 
an external development more or less beautiful and 
showy ; most, though not all ; some of the parts 
wear even a different garment, woven of the warp 
and woof, not of an Episcopacy and a liturgy, but of 
parity in order, and the extempore in worship. 
Nevertheless, all these are but parts of the one 
Body. These diversities touch not essentials. 
They " cut not off from God or His Church.'' 
Such is Bishop Hall's figure, turned into literal 
sense. 

6. I quote, finally, Bishop Jeremy Taylor. De- 
claring in what sense the word, Church, is applied 
to the mixed and often rent Body of the visible 
congregation, he says : " The word. Church .... 
may be and is given to them by way of supposi- 
tion, and legal presumption ; as a jury of twelve 
men are called ' good men and true ;' that is, they 
are not known to be otherwise, and are therefore 
presumed to be such ; and they are the Church, in 
all human accounts ; that is, they are the congrega- 
tion of all that profess the Name of Christ ; in which 
are the wheat and the tares ; and they are bound 
up in common by the union of sacraments and rites, 
name and profession ; but in nothing else." [Dis- 
13 . 



194 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



suasive from Popery, Part IL, B. i.. Sect. 1, and 
§§1-2.] _ 

To estimate rightly these testimonies from oar 
old writers to the view which I have given of the 
visible Church Catholic, we must remember that 
they belong to the age which closely followed that 
of the Reformation itself ; that they write in pres- 
ence of the great, outstanding fact that a consider- 
able portion of the Reformed Body was, as it still 
continues, without an Episcopal ministry ; and that 
they were in the habit of speaking of this portion 
as " the Reformed Churches." 

This whole discussion about the visible Church 
might, under ordinary circumstances, be deemed un- 
interesting and even unprofitable. But it cannot be 
so considered when we remember that the circum- 
stances of the times in which we live are very ex- 
traordinary. We live in a day when many are 
endeavoring to upheave the very foundations of our 
Protestantism, and to deprive of all claim to the 
name of a Church those whom our fathers have re- 
cognized as belonging to the great visible Body of 
Christ. This effort cannot succeed without putting 
in jeopardy our own integrity, if not our own ex- 
istence, as a Church ; nor, what is worse, without 
undermining all that is most precious in the Gospel 
of Christ as we receive it from '• the living Oracles'' 
of God. Under such circumstances, every thing 



THE VISIBLE CHURCH, 195 

touching n'o'lit views of even the visible Church 
links itself vitally with the Christian teacher's 
grand theme, "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." 
We must lose our interest in this all-enlivening 
heart of the Gospel before we can become indiffer- 
ent to the question, What is the true comprehension 
of the visible Church ? or to the efforts which are 
made to exclude from it some of the deservedly 
valued portions of the professed followers of 
Christ. 

I speak, not as an apologist of Non-Episcopalians, 
but as an advocate of true Church principles. That 
any part of the visible Church is without the Epis- 
copacy is, to me, a matter of sorrow. But it would 
be a matter, not merely of sorrow, but of conscious 
wrong, were I to lay at the base of the visible 
Church a principle, which, in its operation, cuts off 
an}^ who, by the laws of truth and right, belong to 
its great Corporation. 

Other questions, touching the visible Church, re- 
main for consideration. 



PABT III 



WELL-BEING OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 



WELL-BEING OF THE VISIBLE 
CHURCH. 



CHAPTEE I 



ON THE MINISTRY. 



^^HE Church Catholic, both in its divine holi- 
^ ness, and in its actual visibleness ; what is 
necessary to the being of each, and what each re- 
ally comprehends ; this is the subject, upon which 
the present course of studies has, thus far, been 
engaged. Christ and the members really united 
with Him by the inworking Spirit, in a living and 
sanctifying faith, this is the spiritual Church Cath- 
olic : — Christ and the members professedly united 
with Him by outward signs, teaching faith and 
holiness, this is the visible Church Catholic ; each 
in its essence, or vfhat is necessary to its ex- 
istence. 

And here, if I were dealing simply with princi- 
ples, with the truths of Grod's Word, and the essen- 
tials of His Church, I might leave the subject ; not 
because, even in this view, the subject is exhaust- 
ed, but because enough has been said to clear the 
one point, at which I have been aiming, the true 
comprehension of the Church of Christ. 

(199) 



200 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

But, since it is evident that this subject concerns, 
not only principles, but also men and the working- 
out of principles, it is also evident that we ought to 
understand not only what is necessary to the being 
of the Church, but also what is requisite to its well- 
being ; what is designed to secure its order, its 
permanency, and its prosperity. 

The main requisites to the well-being of the 
Church are, doubtless, to be found in a faithful 
preaching of the Gospel, and in a due administra- 
tion of the sacraments of Christ. But both of these, 
as reason may infer, and as the Scriptures teach, 
imply A MINISTRY, whose office it is both to preach 
the Gospel and to administer the sacraments. But. 
besides these functions, the ministry has more or 
less to do with the Government and Worship of the 
Church ; while, if we would really grasp all that is 
requisite to the well-being of the Church, still other 
things must be taken into our view, such as the 
Harmony of its parts, and the Unity of the whole. 
The topics, then, which are yet to occupy our 
thoughts, are these ; the Ministry, the Government, 
the Worship, the Harmony, and the Unity of the 
Church. And after touching upon these, not sys- 
tematically and exhaustively, but as they relate 
presently and practically to our own times, and the 
times that are coming on the earth, it will not be 
amiss to look upwards, and see in what a divine 



ON THE MINISTRY. 201 

CO u summation all things are to end, when heaven 
shall have received the whole, and when Jesus and 
His saints shall show the universe what is meant by 
a perfect Church. 

1. THE MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH. 

1. In entering on this topic, my first inquiry is, 
What is the relation and connection of the ministry 
with the Church ? i\nd to this question, if I mis- 
take not, we have an answer in a passage, which 
you will find in 1 Cor. 12: 28: ''God hath set 
some in the Church ; first, apostles ; secondarily, 
prophets ; thirdly, teachers, etc." 

I refer to this passage, not on account of its nu- 
merals, "first, secondarily, and thirdly," but for 
two other reasons. It shows. first, that the ministry 
is from God : " God hath set it in the Church.^' 
Whatever name this ministry may, at different 
times, have borne ; by whatever varying forms it 
may have been successively modified ; and through 
whatever outward channel it may, at its first be- 
ginning, have descended ; it came from God, and 
not from man. Its authority is divine, and not 
human. And then, second, it shows that this min- 
istry is not the Church, but onl}^ "some" whom 
" God hath set in the Church ;" set, doubtless, in 
peculiar stations, and in special authority ; and yet 



202 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

set '' in the Church." The Church is not, as some 
writers teach, set in the ministry j but the ministry 
is set in the Church. 

This distinction is very important. When cer- 
tain writers speak of the Church, they speak as if 
they had nothing in view but the ministry ; as 
though, in its ministry, the very being of the 
Church were involved ; insomuch that, without this 
ministry, the Church itself would cease to exist. 
But look at the chapter from which the above pas- 
sage is taken, and see what a very different view is 
there given. " As the body is one and hath many 
members, and all the members of that one body, 
being many, are one body ; so also is Christ. For 
by one Spirit, we are all baptized into one Body, 
whether we be Jews or Gentiles ; whether we be 
bond or free ; and have been all made to drink into 
one Spirit. For the body is not one member but 

many God hath set the members, every 

one of them, in the body as it hath pleased Him. 
And if they were all one member, where were the 
body ? But now arc they many members, yet but 
one body." [1 Cor. 12 : 12-14, 18-20.] Here the 
Church is presented under the familiar metaphor 
of a body, with its many members ; all constituting 
together one bod}^ This Bod}^, not its ministry 
alone, but this whole Body, with its many mem- 
bers, in subjection to its ono Head, Christ, consti- 



ON THE MINISTRY. 203 

tutes the Church ; and in this Church '' God hath 
set some '' of the. menibers in places of peculiar 
eminence and importance ; just as, in the human 
fabric, He hath assigned corresponding stations to 
the eye, the ear and the hand. Now, we may as 
well say that the human body consists in the eye, 
the ear and the hand ; or that it cannot exist with- 
out these members, as that the Church, the Body 
of Christ, consists in its ministry, or that it cannot 
exist without this ministry. Its ministry, indeed, 
are important members, whom " God hath set in 
the Church f but they are not essential to the Be- 
ing of the Church, any more than the eye, the ear 
and the hand are essential to the being of a human 
body. Suppose the eye were gone, or the ear 
wanting, or the hand left off, or all three absent at 
once ; still the body would be there. So long as 
there was a head, thinking, knowing and govern- 
ing ; and a heart, living, pulsing and feeling ; and 
animal functions, receiving, digesting and distribut- 
ing ; so long as head and heart and animal func- 
tions remain, the body would remain, though it 
wanted eye, or ear, or hand ; yea, though it wanted 
all these at once. Under this tripple want, and 
even under the first, the second, or the third part 
of this want, it would be, indeed, a maimed imper- 
fect, suffering body ; still it would be a body with 
life, and soul, and action, and with more or less 



204 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



of enjoyment. So, from the Church, suppose that 
a part, or even the whole, 'of its ministry were 
wanting, still, the Church itself would not cease to 
exist. So long as Christ, its thinking, knowing, 
governing Head ; and the Holy Spirit, its living, 
pulsing, quickening heart ; and the human mem- 
bers, its receiving, digesting, distributing organism ; 
so long as all these remained, the Church itself 
would remain, though deprived of its higher, its 
middle, or its lower ministries ; yea, though de- 
prived of all these at once. Under this tripple de- 
privation, and even under the first, the second, or 
the third part of this deprivation, it would, indeed, 
be a maimed, imperfect, suffering Church ; still, it 
would be a Church ; it would have life, spirit and 
activity, and somewhat of a divine joy. 

(1.) These remarks show the difference between 
the ministry as being " set in the Church," and the 
Church as set, or organized, in the ministry. It 
settles the question whether the members make 
the ministry, or the ministry the members, of the 
Church, by showing that the truth lies on neither 
side. Certainly the ministry do not make the 
members of the Church ; and as certainly the mem- 
bers do not make the ministry. Each, indeed, has 
somewhat to do in recognizing the other ; but nei- 
ther makes the other. Grod makes them both, fits 
them for each other, and sets them both together in 



ON THE MimSTRY. 205 

Christ. Just as in the human organism, the eye 
does not make the ear, nor the ear the hand, nor 
the hand the foot ; but God makes them all and fits 
them all to serve and help each other, and sets 
them all together in the body. Practically, this 
truth is too often ignored. The whole Church,, 
whether as spiritual or as visible, is God's work, 
not man's. True, He uses men in this Avork ; and 
He uses the common members in making the min- 
istry, as really as He uses the ministry in making 
the common members. Still, the Work itself is 
His. The Church is " His workmanship." He sets 

''all the members, every one of them" 

in it, the lower as well as the higher. Without His 
authority and agency, the Church, whether as in- 
ward or as outward, as spiritual or as visible, 
would not exist ; and His authority and agency are 
the only things without which it cannot exist. 

(2.) Moreover, the chapter on which th-ese re- 
marks are made, shows the distinction between the 
being of the Church and its well-being ; between 
what is essential to its existence, and what is need- 
ful to its fullness, perfectness, and comfort. The 
eye, ear and hand are certainly needful to the full- 
ness, perfectness and comfort of the human body ; 
and yet, if each or every one of these were lost, 
the essence of the body would remain, so long as 
the head, heart and animal functions were left un- 



2o6 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

touched in living action. It were folly to lose sight 
of the difference between what is thus necessary 
to the being and life of the body, and what is thus 
needful to its best, most effective, most happy be- 
ing. ' It is most important to have a body with all 
its members, especially its chief members ; a body, 
full, perfect, strong, and able to do everything for 
which it was designed ; but, for the purposes of 
this world, it is better to have a body with the loss 
of some, even of its most important members, than 
to have no body at all. So in the things of Christ, 
a ministry is evidently needful to the fullness, the 
perfectness, the best welfare, of the Church : and 
j'^i^ if a part, or even the whole of this ministry, as 
this term is ordinaril}^ understood, should by pos- 
sibility be lost, the being, the essence, of the Church 
would remain so long as Christ, the Spirit and the 
great organism of members remained in divine life 
and activity. It were equal foll}^ to lose sight of 
the difference between what is thus essential to the 
being and life of the Church, and what is thus need- 
ful to its best, most effective, most happy being. 
We cannot overrate the importance of having a 
Church, with its whole organism of members, min- 
istry and all, full, perfect, healthy, and able to do 
everything for which it was constituted ; but for 
the purposes of both worlds, it is better to have a 
Church with the loss of some, even of its chief 



ON THE MimSTRT. 207 

members ; of a part, or even the whole of its min- 
istry, than to have no Church at all ; better than 
to lose Christ, and the Spirit, and the great " Com- 
munion of Saints " from off the earth and out of 
heaven ; better than to lose head and heart and 
the whole living organism from among all the off- 
spring of the Infinite Father. 

To all this, indeed, it may be objected, that if by 
possibility the ministry should be lost, though the 
Church would remain for a time, yet, by the death 
of its members, and for want of a ministry formally 
to initiate their successors in membership, it would, 
in the course of one natural generation, expire. 
To this objection, however, I reply : So long as 
Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and ''the Lively Ora- 
cles *' of Truth coming from both are in the world, 
God can raise up and ingraft a succession of mem- 
bers into the Bod}^ of Christ, which is His Church, 
even without the hand of a formally ordained min- 
istry. True, a Church thus perpetuated would, as 
a visible Body, be esteemed a maimed and im- 
perfect Church : still, it would be a Church ; and, 
for God's purposes, unspeakably better than no 
Church at all. 

However, this objection and reply relate to a 
mere abstract possibility ; and are intended to give 
the greater distinctness to the difference between 
the being of the Church and its well-being. We 



2o8 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

have this to comfort us : the ministry is not lost ; 
nor while Christ's promise lives can it ever be lost. 
What is thus needful to the well-being of the Church, 
the Church has and will have, until Christ comes 
again and puts Himself finally in the place of all 
ministries. 

2. Having now seen the relation of the ministry 
to the Church, we are prepared for a second in- 
quiry : What is this ministrj^ ? We have already 
seen that its origin is from Christ ; that God, not 
man, " hath set it in the Church," as "some" among 
the "many members" who are to serve and be 
served in the weal and working of the whole Body ; 
and that thus its place of eminence, whatever it 
may be, has been assigned to it by a Divine and 
not by any human authority. But, what is this 
eminence among the members which has been as- 
signed to the ministry of the Church by its Divine 
Head? or, what form and development has this 
ministry taken from the hands of those Apostles, 
with whom, at its origin, this ministry was lodged ? 
What shape did they give it when they came to 
transmit it to the ages of the Church then future ? 
This questioning leads us into a subject too wide 
for full survey in this Treatise ; and therefore, I 
must content myself with a simple confession of my 
faith, that it may stand as sufficient for my present 
purpose, instead of any long array of arguments. 



ON THE MINISTRY. 209 

I begin this confession, then, in the words which 
the Preface to our "Ordinal," or form of ordina- 
tion, puts into my mouth, and which I am pre- 
pared to utter from my heart. "It is evident," 
says this Preface, " unto all men diligently reading 
holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from the 
Apostles' time there have been these orders of 
ministers in Christ's Church, Bishops, Priests and 
Deacons. Which offices were evermore had in 
such reverend estimation, that no man might pre- 
sume to execute any of them, except he were first 
called, tried, examined and known to have such 
qualities as are requisite to the same ; and also, 
by public prayer, with imposition of hands, were 
approved and admitted thereunto by lawful au- 
thority. And therefore, to the intent that these 
orders may be continued and reverently used and 
esteemed iu this Church, no man shall be accounted 
or taken to be a lawful bishop, priest, or deacon, 
in this Church, or suffered to execute any of the 
said functions, except he be called, tried, exam- 
ined and admitted thereunto according to the form 
hereafter following, or hath had Episcopal conse- 
cration or ordination." 

This Preface, it will be seen, settles for us sev- 
eral points : 

First : that "from the Apostles' time there have 
been in Christ's Church three orders of ministers, 
14 



210 THE LIVma TEMPLE, 

bishop, presbyters and deacons." It says not, 
''from Christ's time,'^ but, "from the Apostles^ 
time." The essential fact and being of a ministry 
it receives from Christ Himself, as left by Him " in 
His Church." But the distribution of this ministry 
into three orders, and three only, it traces no far- 
ther back than to the Apostles. Christ put His 
One commission upon them ; and they distributed 
that commission among three orders of ministers. 
In what this distribution consisted, what special 
powers or prerogatives were assigned to each of 
those three orders, and whether any of those pow- 
ers or prerogatives were confined exclusively to 
any one of those three orders — these are points 
which the Preface does not touch. It merely as- 
serts the fact of such a distribution, and the exist- 
ence of this fact in the Church " from the Apostles' 
time." 

Second : that for the exercise of any office under 
this three-fold ministry, it was '' evermore" neces- 
sary that the incumbent should be "tried," found 
possessed of "the requisite qualifications," and 
"admitted by lawful authority." Where this law- 
ful authority was primarily lodged, when the min- 
isterial commission passed from the Apostles' 
hands, is also a point which the Preface touches 
not ; it merely decides, infer entially, that any en- 
trance into this threefold ministry, save by the 



ON THE MINISTRY. 2 1 1 



door of such lawful authority, was ''evermore" 
held to be irregular and presumptuous. 

Third: that, "in this Church," the three-fold 
ministry shall be perpetuated, and that the only 
lawful way of entrance into any of its three orders, 
shall be through our prescribed forms of trial and 
of ordination by bishops, or through some other 
equivalent Episcopal acts. Here Episcopacy comes 
out as our unalterable regimen. The Preface says, 
not that a trine ministry must, to the exclusion 
of every other form, be perpetuated in Christ^s 
Church, or in the Church, as necessary to its being, 
but that such a ministry shall, as a fact, be per- 
petuated " in THIS Church ;" not that there is no pos- 
sible way of entering into the ministry of Christ^s 
Church, or of the Church, save through our forms 
of trial and ordination, or their equivalents, but, 
that there shall be no other lawful way of entering 
into the ministry of " this Church." In both these 
places that little word " this," is brimful of mean- 
ing and importance. In the first paragraph of the 
Preface occurs the phrase " Christ's Church ;" in 
the second paragraph, twice occurs the phrase 
'' this Church ;" and the question naturally arises. 
Does the Preface, in its second paragraph, mean 
by the phrase, "this Church," what it means, in 
its first paragraph, by the phrase " Christ's 
Church ?" I answer, it does not, and cannot, mean 



2 12 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

the same. If, by '' this Church/' the Preface had 
simply intended to repeat the terms, '' Christ's 
Church,'^ it would declare, what our Ecclesiastical 
authority has never elsewhere declared, and what, 
until we lose our Protestantism, that authority can 
never be made to declare, viz : that, without an 
Episcopacy, there can be no ministry in the Church 
of Christ. Let us, for a moment, put the Preface 
in this form. "In Christ's Church there have been 
always and everywhere, bishops, priests, and dea- 
cons ; and, therefore, it is decreed that, in this 
Church, this Church of Christ, no man shall be 
accounted a lawful bishop, priest, or deacon, or be 
suffered to execute any of the said functions, unless 
he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereto 
according to our form, or some other Episcopal 
mode of ordination." We can see at once that 
this would make our Church declare, authorita- 
tively, that there is, and ever has been, no Chris- 
tian ministry, except such as has been Episco- 
pally ordained ; and that none but such shall 
be suffered to officiate in the Church of Christ 
in any part of the world ; a decision which would 
not only make her, in theory, unchurch a consider- 
able part of Christendom, but also, in practice, 
pledge herself to carry out the unchurching edict 
with a relentless vengeance, and this, too, after 
having formally acknowledged, in her Preface to 



ON THE MimSTRT. 2 1 3 

the '' Book of Common Prayer/^ that Non-Episco- 
pal ''denominations" are "Churches/' and have 
" full and equal liberty " with herself " to model 
and organize their respective Churches and forms 
of worship and discipline, in such manner as they 
may judge most convenient for their prosperity.'' 
The truth iS; that this Preface to the ordinal, after 
asserting the fact that there ever have been three 
orders of ministers in the Church, since the Apos- 
tles' time, goes on to say and to intend, no more 
than this: that, in this "Protestant Episcopal 
Church in the United States of America," in this 
Church, for which the following ordinal has been 
drawn up — the ministry shall always retain the 
three orders of "bishops, presbyters, and dea- 
cons." Any man may hold, as a matter of private 
opinion, that there never was, and never can be, 
any Christian ministry without bishops ; but our 
Church, in this Preface to her ordinal, teaches no 
such thing, and never can be made to teach such a 
thing, so long as she remains Protestant. 

Fourth : that, as a matter of fact, there has, ever 
since the Apostles' time, been a trine ministry in 
the Church, the Preface declares it to be " evident 
to all men diligently reading holy Scripture and 
ancient authors." And this is a declaration to 
which I very heartily assent. The fact asserted 
is, I think, evident to all diligent readers of those 



214 



THE LIVING TEMPLE, 



olden records. The Preface says, not that this 
evidence runs back unto Christ, but that it runs 
back to ''the Apostles;" and that this evidence 
lies not in the Scripture alone, but in "the Scrip- 
tures and ancient authors." And I confess that I 
cannot impeach the Preface of a want of reason- 
ableness in what it says. The fact is reasonably' 
evident to all who thus read the testimonies cited. 
Though the Scriptures alone may not " evi- 
dence "this fact to demonstration, jo^i, "diligently 
read," they show, by no equivocal marks, the pro- 
gress which the Apostles made in the trine dis- 
tribution of the ministerial office. Taking its full 
commission directly from Christ Himself, one of 
their early acts was, by praj^er and the laying on 
of hands, to ordain a company of deacons, " men 
of honest report and full of the Holy Ghost and 
wisdom." Another, of subsequent and more fre- 
quent occurrence, was the " ordaining of elders," 
or presbyters. And still another wa,s the occa- 
sional appointment, as in the cases of Timothy and 
Titus, of general supervisors over territories of 
greater or less extent, who, whatever the powers 
or duties of the other orders may have been, cer- 
tainly had for themselves that of ordaining to the 
ministry. Thus much is plain on the very face of 
the Scriptures. Whoever will "diligently read" 
them, will see that they make these things " evi-r 



ON THE MINISTRY. z 1 5 

dent." There must be a strange slowness to see, 
or a stranger dullness to read evidence, if thus 
much become not patent on a careful perusal 
of the New Testament. The evidence of what 
has been stated cannot reasonably be put out 
of sight or cross-questioned into self-contradic- 
tion. 

And then, passing from the latest Scriptures, as 
the "Writings of the Apostles, to the earliest of 
the "ancient authors," those who began to live 
before the last of the Apostles died — Clement of 
Rome, Polycarp of Smyrna, and Ignatius of An- 
tioch — another thing is evident to all who "dili- 
gently read " them, which is, that to the three 
orders which we have seen the Apostles arranging 
in the distribution of the ministry, these " ancient 
a.uthors " gave distinctive names. Whatever vary- 
ing names had been used before, or however inter- 
changeably some of those names may, at first, have 
been applied, these " ancient authors " had, in 
their day, settled upon three ; and, having done 
so, used them with fixed and unchangeable appli- 
cation. They uniformly called those three grades 
"Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons." They speak 
of those three grades under these distinctively 
applied names, as one of the patent, out-standing 
facts of their time ; and one of them, Ignatius, 
expressly declares that " there was no Church 



2i6 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

without them f [Ep. ad Trail, Apostol. Fath., 
First Am. Ed., N. Y., 1810, p. 207] in other 
words, that, in all the Churches then known, there 
were Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons. Let any 
candid man ''diligently read'' the brief epistles 
of these three "ancient authors," and I think it 
will be impossible for him to doubt their views of 
the Christian ministry as apostolically distributed 
and settled. Manifestly, no shadow of doubt rests 
on the point. These authors cast the light of a 
credible testimony back on the Scriptures, render- 
ing unconcealably "evident" the fact, that the 
ministry, as arranged by the Apostles, was three- 
fold, and that its three grades had, in their day, 
come to be distinctively and fixedly known by the 
names of "Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons." This 
is what the Preface to our ordinal asserts ; the 
" evidentness " of this fact to all "diligent read- 
ers " of those olden records — an evidentness which 
needs no argument to make it strike the eye. And 
this, with the other teachings of the Preface, makes 
up the confession of faith, on which I am prepared 
to stand, and which I here present instead of any 
long array of argument on the subject of the Chris- 
tian ministry. I abstain from this argument, not 
because its difficulties would be embarrassing, but 
because one aim in this whole discussion is to 
avoid whatever might have the appearance of an 



02T THE MimSTR Y. 217 

intrusion within the general department of Eccle- 
siastical Polity. 

I close the present Chapter by stating and briefly 
answering two questions, which may arise out of 
what has been said. 

(1.) If the Apostles distributed the ministry 
which they received into three orders ; and if their 
immediate successors received these three orders 
as the Apostolically arranged model of the ministry ; 
why do you not admit that this form of ministry is 
essential to the Being of the Church ; insomuch that 
bodies, destitute of this form of ministry, do not 
belong to the Church ? 

To this question I reply ; I do not regard this 
form of the minitry as esssential to the being of the 
Church, first : because the Preface to our ordinal 
does not trace the threefold character of the minis- 
try to Christ. It traces the distribution no farther 
back than to the Apostles. Second : because the 
Apostles themselves do not make it demonstrably 
certain that this threefold distribution was design- 
ed, by divine right, to confine the power of or- 
dination to the FIRST grade, so that ordination by 
the second should, of itself, be null. And third : 
because some of the greatest writers, both Roman- 
ist and Protestant, have conceded that this power 
was not thus restricted by either Christ or His 



2i8 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

Apostles. On this last point in the answer, a few- 
references will not be out of place. 

Dr. Cosin, then, to whom reference has already 
been made, as one of the most strenuous advocates 
of Episcopacy, writes thus: "I conceive that the 
power of ordination was restrained to Bishops rath- 
er by Apostolical practice and the perpetual custom 
and canons of the Church, than by any absolute 
precept that either Christ or His Apostles gave 
about it. Nor can I yet meet with any convincing 
argument to set it upon a more high and divine in- 
stitution There have been," he adds, "both 

learned and eminent men, as well in former ages as 
in this, and even among the Eoman Catholics as 
well as Protestants, who have held and maintained 
it for good and passable divinity, that presbyters 
have the intrinsical power of ordination in actu pri- 
mo f^ although, as he proceeds to say, in substance, 
'' for the avoidance of schism, and the preserving 
of order and discipline in the Church," the}" have 
from the tirst " been restrained from exercising 
their power in actu secundo;^' ^o that, now, the ex- 
ercise of their power is irregular and uncanonical, 
though ''not void simply " in itself ''and in the 
nature of the thing." [Letter to Cordel. Hooker's 
Col. Phila. 1844. Pp. 230, 232, 233.] For this 
opinion he cites a catalogue of eminent Continen- 
tal authors, both Romish and Protestant ; and, 



ON THE MimSTRY. 



219 



among the great lights of the English Church, 
Jewel, Field, Hooker and Mason. 

Such, then, in addition to what runs through my 
v/hole argument, are ray reasons for not regarding 
the Episcopal form of the ministry as essential to 
the being of the Church. 

(2.) Why, then, do you receive and retain this 
form of the ministry ? If it be not essential, why 
do you not relinquish it, and thus be rid of one of 
the impediments in the way of a wider union 
among Protestants? 

To this question I reply : I do not relinquish this 
form of the ministry because the Apostles, in mak- 
ing this threefold distribution, acted as Christ's 
chosen agents, and in the exercise of the peculiar 
wisdom, which, doubtless, they derived from Him. 
The three orders, therefore, as to the fact of them, 
have the virtual approval of Christ. The fact of 
an Episcopacy, though not the extraordinary pow- 
ers, with which some would invest it, has, ultimate- 
ly, the approval of the divine Head of the Church. 
Although, therefore, a real necessity may have de- 
prived some Christian bodies of the Episcopacy, 
without thereby putting them out of the visible 
Church, yet, a needless, voluntary relinquishment 
of this form of the ministry constitutes one of the 
forms of the fearful evil of schism. It breaks the 
order and discipline of the Church, and hazards 



220 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

deeply much that is precious in the temporal and 
spiritual well-being of the visible body of Christ. 
The Episcopacy, though not essential to the very 
being of the Church, may yet be demonstrated by 
facts, as well as by arguments, to be important to 
the best welfare of the Church. Therefore it is, 
to say nothing of other reasons, that I do not re- 
linquish the Episcopacy. Such an act, in me, would 
be a reckless wounding of the Saviour in the house 
of His friends. 



CHAPEER II. 



GOVERNMENT. 



TN treating of the WELL-being of the visible 
-^ Church, the subject of government may, with 
propriety, be considered as following next to that 
of the MINISTRY. In entering on this subject of 
Church government, however, I wish to premise 
that I hope to discuss it in such a way as not to 
trench on the labors of those who are, or may be 
your teachers in the general study of Ecclesiastical 
Polity. 

That there is such a thing as government in the 
visible Church, I need not argue. Grovernment is 
as necessary to the well-being of the Church as it is 
to that of the State ; and the Word of God recogni- 
zes the fact, as well as the necessity, of this institute 
in the former as distinctly as in the latter. The 
Apostle's words, Heb. 13 : 17 : "Obey them that 
have the rule over you, and submit yourselves," 
refer, not to Civil but to Ecclesiastical rule ; for, 
of those who hold this rule, he immediately adds : 
" they watch for your souls as they that must give 

(231) 



222 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

account.'^ Civil rulers watch not for souls ; this 
watch is peculiar to rulers in the Church. 

The language of the Apostle, moreover, refers to 
lawful, constituted rule ; not to rule accidentally ac- 
quired, or arbitrarily assumed. Those who hold this 
rule, hold it rightly ; as a rule, which the members 
of the Church may be called upon to "obey." As 
we saw in the last Chapter, "God hath set '^ his 
ministry "in the Church.'^ The institution itself 
of a Christian ministry is divine ; as emphatically 
so, as that of civil government. If, in the State, 
" the powers that be are ordained of God," so es- 
pecially are they in the Church. 

But the rule here mentioned is vested, not in 
one, but in several. "Obey" — not him, but — 
"them that have tiiis rule." The plain inference 
from this is — that, when Paul wrote, there was no 
one, recognized, temporal head of the Church. Its 
government was then vested in a greater or less 
number of rulers. 

When we inquire further, however, whether the 
rule here recognized was vested in an order of 
ministers of superior grade, having under them 
ministers of lower grades, and governing the 
Churches under their care according to Christ-'s 
laws, as in an Episcopacy ; or was vested in a 
ministry, constituted on the principle of parity, 
having no inferior grades, and ruling the Churches 



GOVERNMENT. 223 

by their joint counsels ; as in Presbyterianism ; or 
was vested in each separate and equal pastor, rul- 
ing his own charge as a virtually independent 
Church ; as in Congregationalism : the Apostle's 
words do not decide. They simply decide that 
there is, in the Church, a divinely constituted gov- 
ernment ; and that this government was administer- 
ed — not by one, but — by a plurality of ministers. 
Our claim is that, "from the Apostles' time," the 
ruling ministry of the Church has, as a matter of 
prevailing fact, had its base on an Episcopal plat- 
form ; and my purpose, in the present Chapter, is, 
to examine some of the chief advantages of an 
Episcopacy in the discipline of the Church of 
Christ, in promoting the WELL-being of this visible 
Body of our as yet Invisible Head. 

Before entering, however, on this examination, 
I wish to throw off from the subject certain extra- 
neous matters, by which it would be embarrassed. 

Connected, then, with the Christian ministry, and 
originating in some fruitful source, there has, doubt- 
less, been a tendency to augment its true power, 
and, at the same time, to diminish the just influence 
of the popular element in the Church : while, on 
the contrary, there has been, in connection with 
the popular element, and originating in some simi- 
lar source, a tendency to enlarge its proper sphere 
of activity and to diminish the just influence of the 



2 24 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

ministry. What we have heard of the usurpations 
of the Priesthood on the one hand, and what we 
have seen of popular extravagances on the other, 
render illustrations of this remark needless. It is 
more important to observe that, as to their fruitful 
source, both tendencies have sprung — not out of 
the Christian ministry itself, nor out of the true 
genius of a Christian people, but out of a corrupt 
human nature, and the circumstances in which it 
has been placed : and that, under these circum- 
stances, those tendencies would have developed 
themselves under any form which the ministry 
could have assumed ; and under any type, short 
of a vastly higher sanctification, into which a Chris- 
tian people could have been molded. 

Again : looking at Episcopacy, as the Apostolical 
constitution of the ministry, we see that the later 
power of the Papacy, on the one hand, has tended 
to degrade Bishops below their primitive rank of 
equality with each other ; while, on the other hand, 
the popular element has tended to annihilate the 
Episcopal office itself But, neither with these ten- 
dencies have I now any concern, save to disembar- 
rass my subject of them at the outset. They are 
the tendencies of our corrupt nature under the 
the circumstances of which History takes note, and 
not of a true Episcopacy or of a Christian People 
in themselves considered. In treating the subject, 



GOVERNMENT. 



225 



I must be allowed to rid myself of everything that 
belongs not properly and strictly to it. This sub- 
ject has nothing to do with a Church monarchy as 
in Italy ; nor with a titled Prelacy as in England ; 
nor with corrupt and worldly Bishops, as in va- 
rious countries ; much less with here and there a 
MONSTER under a mitre, such as has occasionally 
been seen. These things belong not to Episcopacy 
itself ; they are but the historic incidents which, 
amid the changes of human society and out of the 
workings of a depraved nature, have been super- 
added to Episcopacy. Any form of the Christian 
ministry in human hands is liable to abuse. In 
such hands, Presbyterianism and Congregational- 
ism may become as ambitious, as oppressive, and 
as corrupt as any other form of the ministry. 

Why have we heard of such evils in an Episco- 
pacy, so much more frequently than in any other 
form of the Christian ministry ? Because, in all 
ages since the Apostles, and in all countries through- 
out Christendom, the Church has, for the most part, 
had an Episcopacy in its ministry. There has been 
little but an Episcopacy, so far as the ministry is 
concerned, to meet and endure the deforming and 
corrupting influences of human society and of his- 
toric events. Episcopacy has come down to us 
through the struggles of the ages among the nations 
of the earth. It has come down through near two 
15 



226 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

thousand years of terrible experience ; through the 
disorders which attended the decline of the Roman 
Empire ; through the devastations which tracked 
the irruptions of the Barbarian hordes ; through 
the superstitions, heathen in origin, which sprang 
up during Mediaeval darkness ; through the strange 
influences which molded it during the Feudal ages 
and under the Feudal system ; through the blood 
and fires and fearful excitements of the great Ref- 
ormation ; through the fierce contests in England 
between a political Church Establishment, and 
strenuous Puritan Dissent ; and finallj^, in our own 
land, through the hot passions and keen prejudices 
engendered by our severance from foreign rule, as 
well ecclesiastical as political. As the union of 
the Church with the State at the conversion of 
Constantine, the introduction of heathen supersti- 
tions into the Christian body, the power of the 
Feudal system, and the influence of the Middle 
Ages, generally tended to corrupt the ancient 
Episcopacy ; so the terrible excitements of the 
Reformation, of the Puritan struggle, and of our 
American Revolution, have, doubtless, tended to 
confirm those corruptions, on the principle that 
what is fiercely and bloodily assailed, seeks, as 
men are naturally constituted, to defend aiid pre- 
serve itself; and thereby takes deeper root in the 
soil from which its eradication is sought. Into all 



GOVERNMENT. 227 

these dreadful strifes and changes, then, of the ages 
and nations of Christendom, springing, as they have, 
out of the all- controlling movements of the world, 
Episcopacy has been carried by the resistless cur- 
rent on which all human things have been borne. 
Those strifes and changes mark the steps in the 
slow, sublime movements of Christian civilization 
towards a higher and more perfect ideal. They 
have, doubtless, stamped on the character and in- 
stitutions of men some dark lines and features, so 
deep that centuries have not yet been able entirely 
to wear them out ; and I think it safe to say that 
any form of the Christian ministry, coming down 
through the same long ages, and through the same 
strange series of changes and of influences, would 
have developed evils and abuses, if not identical, 
at least equal with those which have been exhibi- 
ted in the descent of the ancient Episcopacy to our 
times. Under any other constitution of the minis- 
try nothing could have prevented the result but 
Pentecostal displays of grace, perpetuated from 
age to age, and making the Church the resistless 
molder of the world's character, instead of leaving 
the world to act in reality as a potent modifier of 
the character of the Church ; and with such Pente- 
costal displays of grace, had God seen fit to vouch- 
safe them, the ancient Episcopacy itself would have 
come down unabused, unharmed ; and the outcry 



228 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

from the mouth of the world, and the record from 
the pen of history against the abuses to which it 
has been subject, would have been unheard, un- 
written. From the close of the Second to that of 
the Eighteenth Century, Episcopacy has been sub- 
jected to the severest of tests, and carried through 
the most pernicious of influences. During the reign 
of those long ages, it was never, as a whole, in a 
position favorable to the development of its true 
character, and to the exertion of its true power, 
uncorrupt and unfettered. 

We must, therefore, set aside from the subject 
all the considerations to which I have adverted, 
and look at Episcopacy in its own proper charac- 
ter, as a constitution of the Christian ministry on 
the basis of an imparity of orders, and securing to 
the highest of those orders — not the whole, but — a 
high place of rule in the Church. We must look 
at Episcopacy as it ought to be, as it was designed 
to be, and as in various times and places it has 
been ; humble and holy, world-renouncing and la- 
borious, and amid all, ruling the Church according 
to Christ's laws. I say, " according to Christ's 
laws ;" for, though the Church has power to make 
other regulations for the outward order of worship, 
for the transaction of business, and for the man- 
agement of temporalities, provided these regula- 
tions are harmonious, or not inconsistent with the 



GOVERNMENT. 



229 



Scriptures, yet, any goyernment, whether in Epis- 
copal or in other hands, which attempts to rule 
the Church in spiritual matters, on the basis of any 
other laws than those which Christ has left, is a 
usurpation and a tyranny, unlawful in the sight of 
God. I repeat, then, we must look at Episcopacy 
as it ought to be, as it was designed to be, and as 
it often has been ; imbued with the mind of Christ, 
and ruling the Church according to the laws of 
Christ. It is no more than right to look at a thing 
in itself, separate from the abuses of which it has 
incidentally been the subject. When they fall into 
wicked hands, the best things have the worst abuses. 
Hence that best of rules, ''do all to the glory of 
God,'' has been made practically to sanctify the 
most dreadful enormities ; even to the blood and 
fires, the racks and brain-destroying tortures of the 
Inquisition ! 

In proceeding now to the subject of this Chapter, 
I do not propose to treat it in all its details, but 
shall confine myself to what I consider the two 
main functions of the Christian ministry, viz. : to 
rule the Church by the Discipline of Order, and 
to guide the Church by the Discipline of Truth. 
These two. Scriptural Order and Scriptural Teach- 
ing, are of prime importance to the WELL-being of 
the Church. 



230 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



I. First, then, let us look at Episcopacy as a 
Discipline of Oedee : 

In tlie visible Churchj government is a necessary 
function. Although no one form or constitution of 
government can be used as a mark by which to 
determine the comprehension of the Church, yet as 
visible, no part of the Church has ever been without 
some such form, or constitution. The very fact of 
an ecclesiastical organization implies the existence, 
and rests on the necessity, of government in the 
Church. 

The main advantage of a simple Episcopacy, as 
a Discipline of Order, becomes manifest in its 
UNITING power. In his true character, a bishop ap- 
pears — not as a mere man in the ministry, who, by 
peculiar personal qualities, or by some accidental 
circumstances, has acquired superior influence, and 
is thus, perhaps, an object of jealousy or of envy, 
but — as the regularly constituted and cheerfully 
acknowledged superior of the clergy and people 
under his care. By their own choice he should be, 
and in our country he is, in an office which they 
regard as having come down from the Apostles, 
and around which, therefore, cluster their best sen- 
timents of filial reverence and deferential regard. 
Their submission to his lawful rule is cordial ; free, 
so far as our earthly lot will admit, from the human 
feelings of jealousy and envy. In this character 



GOVERNMENT. 231 

the Episcopac}^ tends not to degrade the lower or- 
ders of the ministry, for they are its main helps in 
laboring for Christ ; nor to depress the just influ- 
ence of the popular element, for on that it depends 
for concurrence and efficiency in those labors ; but 
simply to act as a uniting bond to both clergy and 
people ; enforcing the rules of law and administer- 
ing the discipline of law, fraternally and wisely ; 
allaying dissentions and composing strifes, with the 
best prospects of cheerful acquiescence from both, 
and of keeping the whole body from the extremes 
of clerical encroachment, on the one hand, and of 
popular excess on the other. The best interests, 
as well as the high duty of such an Episcopacy, lie 
in the harmony, peace and love of the whole body 
of ministers and people under its care. Ambitions, 
usurpations, stretches of power, are possible evils : 
but they are possible under all systems in the 
hands of men ; and would be as possible in a De- 
mocracy of the Church as they are found actually 
to be in a Democracy of the State. They are the 
evils of our nature ; and no system can be kept 
wholly safe from their entrance. A simple, primi- 
tive Episcopacy is doubtless as safe from them as 
any system, committed to the guardianship of men ; 
while its power to promote harmony, peace and 
love in obedience to venerable and constituted 
"rule," is manifold greater than that of any other. 



232 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

The objection to this view, that the testimony 
of history is adverse to it ; that, according to this 
testimony, Episcopacy, from its own tendency, 
devehjped itself into the ambitions and usurpa- 
tions and despotism of the Papacy, appears to me 
without weight. Let us look at this a little further. 

What first transformed a simple, primitive bishop 
into an archbishop, the archbishop into a patriarch, 
and, finally, the patriarch into a pope ? Not, as I 
apprehend, the inherent tendency of the ancient 
Episcopacy itself, but the adventitious circum- 
stances with which it became needlessly impli- 
cated. It is inconsistent with my plan to enter 
at large into the history of that development ; 
but I think it would be easy to demonstrate, from 
recorded facts, the following brief summary : 

The development of the Papacy, it may be ad- 
mitted, commenced at a very early period under 
those worldly and corrupting influences which, 
flowing in upon the Church from the ancient hea- 
thenism, and then acting both upon Christian doc- 
trine and upon ecclesiastical polity, exaggerating 
the mystery of sacraments, and abusing the prin- 
ciple of a voluntary support to the ministry into 
a hoarding of enormous wealth to the Church, 
prepared the way for all that followed. The 
process, however, was mightily accelerated by the 
accession of Constantine the Great to the throne. 



GOVERNMENT. 233 

and his real or pretended conversion to Christian- 
ity ; and it was peculiarly favored by his subse- 
quent transfer of the imperial government from 
Rome to Constantinople. That transfer was fatal 
not only to the State but also to the Church. While 
the imperial head was busy at his new and distant 
Capital, it left the ecclesiastical aspirant at Rome 
comparatively free to avail himself of the immense 
advantages which he found in the old metropolis 
of the world for pushing, unobserved and unop- 
posed, his subtle scheme of spiritual despotism. 
Moreover, at his conversion, Constantino had 
brought in, not exactly the modern union of 
Church and State, but a sort of heathen patron- 
age of the Church by the State. As was natural 
in his circumstauces, he adopted Christianity as 
the religion of his, in the main, still unconverted 
Empire, and sought to make himself to religion in 
the State what the bishop was to religion in the 
Church. That political patronage was, not in the 
imperial intention, but in its perverted use, the 
great misfortune of the Christian ages. Yet it 
was a misfortune, incurred, not from the inherent 
tendency of the ancient Episcopacy, but from the 
abused policy of an emperor, hardly disenthralled 
from his once dark bondage under heathenism. 
One of the worst evils of the misfortune lay in 
this, that it gave opportunity to the intensified 



234 ^^^ LIVma TEMPLE, 

working of the corrupting power already in action. 
Thenceforward, as the long ages rolled by, the 
political influences of the State, co-operating with 
those of the Church, both working in all the great 
cities of Christendom, especially in its powerful 
metropolis, and both instigated by the supersti- 
tions which had been previously engendered of 
heathen darkness, favored the rapid exaggeration 
of the simple, primitive Episcopacy, and expedited 
the passage of the once laborious and suffering 
Bishop of Rome, along his career from one grade 
and title to another, and from one degree of politi- 
cal power to a higher ; until, finally, an office, 
which was at first held by a humble laborer and 
sufferer for Christ, came to be filled by a triple- 
crowned MONARCH of the Church, to whom even 
emperors were fain to pay homage. 

That the corruptions of the Church, to which I 
have now adverted, were contracted from the lin- 
gering and scarcely latent heathenism of the Roman 
Empire, while becoming and after it became, nom- 
inally Christian, it will not, I suppose, by Protest- 
ants, be denied ; and that it was through these 
corraptions that the simple Episcopacy of elder 
times was gradually perverted, and the Bishop of 
Rome finally enabled to enforce his claim to uni- 
versal jurisdiction, is a truth as little likely, in 
such quarters, to be questioned. It was under 



aOVEMNMEI^T. 235 

favor of those growing corruptions that the am- 
bitious prelates of that wealthy and powerful city 
were able stretch prerogative after prerogative, to 
secure from weaker prelates concession after con- 
cession, and to take, by the side of temporal 
princes, step after step, until at last a fortunate 
successor reached the summit at which his prede- 
cessors had been aiming, and sate, Pontifex Maxi- 
Mus, claiming to be acknowledged as temporal and 
spiritual head of the Christian world ! Against 
this usurpation many bishops, from first to last, 
contended. The result was not an Episcopacy 
naturally, or of its own innate tendency, develop- 
ing itself into a Papacy, but a pope, finally suc- 
ceeding, through the power of his position, in lord- 
ing it over a once simple Episcopacy. 

The early decay of scriptural piety, consequent 
on the growth of these corruptions, must be re- 
garded as the true secret of his success. Had the 
spirit of that piety continued to live, as in the first 
ages, it would have been impossible either to cor- 
rupt the ancient Episcopacy, or to place the foot 
of a Roman bishop on the neck of a subject Chris- 
tendom. As a strong corroboration of this, it may 
be remarked that, so soon as the spirit of that 
piety, intelligent and scriptural, not superstitious 
and ascetic, began to revive at the dawn and the 
sunrise of the Reformation, the usurpations and 



236 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

prerogatives of the Pope began to be questioned ; 
that, ultimately, his iron yoke was broken off 
throughout all Protestant realms ; and that, in 
England, where the Reformation was conducted 
with closest reference to primitive precedent, 
primitive Episcopacy at once came forward, if not 
wholly in its proper character, at least to its 
proper post ; abounding once more in wondrous 
laborers for Christ, and in wondrous martyrs for 
His Truth. The strength of this remark is in- 
creased by the fact, that nothing higher than Epis- 
copacy was, or could be, retained in England, 
even while settling its ecclesiastical affairs under 
a royally-favored Protestantism. Had the attempt 
been made, while reforming the English Church of 
her doctrinal errors and of her corruptions in cere- 
mony, to retain even the most modified allegiance 
or subordination to the Papacy in government, the 
religious spirit, which awoke and lived in the light 
of the Bible, would have been aroused to the ex- 
treme of resistance, and have swept away not only 
the Papacy, but all traces of the Episcopacy itself. 
The Episcopacy of England was the highest point, 
which the waters of that purifying flood could have 
left standing, so resistlessly does a scripturally en- 
lightened piety set against every form and modi- 
fication of the Papal system. 

Moreover, with all the political and corrupting 



GOVERNMENT. z^j 

influences, and with all tlie amazing wealth and 
power, which I have mentioned, and with which 
his mighty metropolis surrounded him, the Bishop 
of Rome did not succeed in fixing himself on that 
splendid pinnacle of his ambition, till after ages of 
desperate conflict with other Bishops of Christen- 
dom, in their resistence to his unscriptural claims. 
And even when he did finally succeed, in despite 
of such resistance, it was not because he was Bishop, 
but because his see was Rome, the metropolis of 
Christendom, — the central heart of the wealth, and 
power, and, for a while, of the civil influence, of a 
fatally corrupted Empire. The idea, that ancient 
bishops, prompted by an inherent tendency in 
their office, conspired either openly or secretly, 
either consciously or unconsciously, to lift, or be 
the instruments of lifting, one of their own official 
equals, step by step, and age after age, to a throne 
and a tiara, is, to my mind, the wildest of chimeras. 
They struggled long and earnestly against the 
strides of a mammoth power, in which Christian 
office had become blended with a strange concen- 
tration of all the baleful influences of this world. 
Suppose that the Bishop of Rome had been but a 
presbyter among presbyters, with no bishops on 
earth ; yet, by virtue of his position, a kind of suc- 
cessional moderator over his brethren, a successive 
^^ Primuis inter pares,''^ or first among equals; I 



238 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

hold that the mighty influences of the ages, through 
which his office passed down, would inevitably have 
made him a Pope, if not in name, yet in fact and 
effect. The truth is ; in their real, spiritual inde- 
pendence, as official equals, bishops are, and ever 
have been, the most strenuous opponents of Pop- 
ery. If, then, they, with all the authority and in- 
fluence of their ancient and venerated office, were 
unable to resist the strides of the Politico-Eccles- 
iastical giant in Rome, what could a less influential 
band of Church-officers have done in their struggle 
with that evil genius of Christianity ? No : this 
tendency to an augmentation of power, and of the 
abuses of power, sprang not out of the ancient 
Episcopacy itself Had the Church never been 
married to the State ; had political and pecuniary 
influence, favored by the corruptions of a darkling 
age, never submerged that simple and primitive 
institute in the depths of their own dead sea ; the 
Papacy had never existed. Most of all things, and 
with the best of reasons, the Popes fear a spiritual, 
independent Episcopacy, filled with official equals. 
Hence, that partial approach to such an Episco- 
pacy, which the restored English Church exhibits, 
has ever been an object of State-jealousy to the 
Church monarch at Rome. Were there no such 
Episcopacy in the world, Rome, I fear, would reign 
in comparative freedom from solicitude ; and her 



GOVERNMENT. 



239 



hope would sensibly brigliten of once more wield- 
ing the sceptre of a universal dominion. 

I think it then safe to say : that Episcopacy did 
not, from its own, original and inherent tendency, 
develop itself into Popery ; and that it is not now, 
from itself tending back to that extreme. Enough 
has been said to make us receive, with confidence, 
the conclusions ; that unsanctified human nature, 
under all circumstances, and especially under such 
as history records, does tend violently to the Papal 
corruption ; that political influence, when married 
to the Church, tends most forcibly to the same 
result ; and that superstition and doctrinal error, 
as we have seen with our own saddened eyes, may 
run, with unmatched velocity, along the beaten 
track both of our straying nature and of a merely 
baptized political ambition : but, that simple, prim- 
itive Episcopacj^ itself is not plagued with this ten- 
dency more than any other pious and exemplary 
Christian ministry. In ruling the Church, such an 
Episcopacy is a happy mean between the Papal 
tyranny on the one hand, and popular misrule on 
the other. Its character happily fits it for such a 
uniting position. Popery accumulates and absorbs 
power into itself ; the unrestrained popular element 
disperses and finally destroys it : a simple Episco- 
pacy represses both extremes, and binds together 
the body of Christ's members in as much of har- 



^o 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



mony, peace and love as are compatible with the 
lot of Christ's religion in the hands of our common 
humanity. Both in individuals and in society, our 
nature tends to extremes ; and when, with an en- 
larged and enlightened view, we look upon the 
ruinous character of the extremes, into which, on 
either hand, it has actually run, it must be evident 
to all judicious minds, that the Church needs just 
such a binding influence in its ruling authority as 
that which resided in the ancient Episcopacy, be- 
fore blind, worldly policy, aided by the baptized 
superstitions of heathenism, gathered around it the 
trappings of earthly power and place and wealth ; 
and while, like its Master and from simple love to 
Him and to the souls of men, it was willing to walk 
on its rounds of labor, and to be, in temporal 
things, more unprovided than the foxes in their 
holes and the birds of the air in their nests. Grod 
hasten the day when the spirit of the ancient insti- 
tute shall return, not only in here and there a 
humble, holy bishop, but in all who bear his office ; 
and when, under their wise and paternal sway, the 
Church shall be ruled in harmony, peace and love, 
according to the simple laws of Christ, and in all 
the prosperousness of spiritual life and growth. 

II. I pass now to the second point in the sub- 
ject, viz : Episcopacy as a discipline of truth. 



GOVERNMENT. 



241 



The influence of the ministry in doctrine, preach- 
ing, and example (for in all these it becomes a 
TEACHING institute), is the most important which 
the Christian Church-ruler can exert. It is Christ's 
chief instrumentality in saving lost men, and, in 
using this instrumentality for the well-being of the 
visible Body, a scriptural Bishop occupies a post 
of special advantage. In his true character, as 
humble and holy, laborious and Christ-like, a 
teaching Bishop comes in contact with aB classes 
in the Church, clergy and people, old and young, 
under most favorable circumstances ^ not merely 
as a good man in the ministry,, but clothed with 
the authority and surrounded with the reverence 
which attach themselves to his ancient and pecu- 
liar office ; the recognized and venerated teacher, 
not of a feW; but of the whole flock committed to 
his care j the grave and honored expounder of 
the doctrine of Christ to the widely-spread clergy 
and people of his charge. Taking the Church as 
a whole, the comparatively small number of Bish- 
ops, and the greater publicity of their teachings 
and example, keep them more strictly in the eye 
of scrutiny, and render it more easy to compare 
their doctrine and conduct with the standards of 
truth and duty, than, in i\iQ case of a numerous 
body of clergy, each confined, ordinarily, within 
the limits of a narrower and more private sphere^ 
16 



242 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



would be practicable. It is true, that even a 
Bishop may teach error and practice wickedness ; 
but so, with even greater facility, may any other 
minister. This, therefore, makes nothing against 
our view. Take two preachers of the Gospel, 
equally able and learned, equally holy and exem- 
plary, in all essential respects alike, save that the 
one is a Bishop and the other not a Bishop, and 
it would be impossible so to extend and diversify 
the labors and influence of the latter as to make 
them equal in power and efficiency on the spiritual 
well-being of the flock of Christ, with the equally 
extended labors and the equally diversified in- 
fluence of the former. He has not the same point 
of advantage from which to act. He carries not 
with him, in the peculiar genius of his office, the 
same silent but living and deep-felt power for 
good. And this is said, not by way of depreciat- 
ing the blessed power of the able and holy man 
of God in any Non-Episcopal ministry, but to 
show that it is simply impossible to clothe him 
with that peculiar power for good, which invests 
the equally able and equally holy man of God in 
the office of a Bishop. In his doctrine and in his 
teaching, in his example and in his active mea- 
sures for the extension of religion, there is a pe- 
culiarity of influence in such a Bishop, which no 
other minister of Christ can attain : a peculiarity 



GOVERNMENT. 



243 



which grows, not out of the man, but out of his 
office, and out of the adaptedness with which that 
office meets certain great and permanent suscepti- 
bilities of our common nature. Say what we will, 
we cannot take out of our nature the salutary feel- 
ings of deference and respect, with which it stands 
in the presence of just and fitting and rightly-con- 
stituted superiority of official rank ; '' salutary," I 
say, provided it be a superiority, not so high as 
to inspire an awfal and painful sense of distance, 
nor yet so low as to seem a mere gift from the 
people, to be treated with familiarity, if not con- 
tempt. In spite of theories, our nature dreads the 
monotony of an unbroken level. A beautiful and 
harmonious ascent of being and of orders marks all 
God's works in Heaven and on earth, and it is impos- 
sible to extinguish the feelings which spontaneously 
spring up in the manifested presence of this Divine 
constitution of things. A pure Gospel and the re- 
ligion which it embodies, spread to the best advan- 
tage from such a Bishop as I have described. He 
has the best opportunities for impressing the holy 
character of Christ and His Gospel on wide masses 
of men and upon all the living institutes and per- 
manencies of the Church. Tuc point of influence 
from which he acts gives him the best means of 
" driving away from the Church all erroneous and 
strange doctrines contrary to God's Word " He 



244. THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

is not SO far from his clergy and people as that he 
cannot see and measure error and its evils with 
his own ej^es, and remove them by such means as 
are wisest and best ; nor yet so nearly on an 
equality with them in point of conceded authority, 
as to strip his discipline of its just power for effect. 
Both in teaching the truth and in repressing error, 
he wields the happiest instrumentality for good. 
He concentrates confidence, veneration, love ; he 
awakens respect, reverence, obedience ; he pro- 
motes harmony, zeal, action ; and he does all with 
a peculiarity of success, to which no one, under 
other forms of the ministry, can attain ; to which 
no one in the lower orders of an episcopally con- 
stituted ministry can attain ; which springs from 
the fact that there are lower orders in this minis- 
try, and which, in truth, is partly but the power 
of these lower orders working upwards, and be- 
coming manifest in the results of this benignly 
effective Presidency. 

It will be well, before closing this Chapter, to 
notice a modification to the objection against Epis- 
copacy, which has already occupied so much of 
our time. It may be thus stated : The office of a 
Bishop has too much power, too strong attractions, 
for the mere worldly heart in its love of authority 
and official consideration ; and, therefore. Bishops 
are more apt to be worldly in spirit and corrupt 



GOVERNMENT. 245 

in doctrine, and hence, more baleful in their in- 
fluence on the cause of spiritual religion, than a 
ministry constituted on the basis of official parity. 
To the objection in this shape I reply : if the 
Episcopal office were, indeed, and intrinsically, 
identified with the pomp and circumstance, the 
wealthy endowment and political power, which, in 
England, have been associated with it, there might 
be weight in the objection. But this is not so. 
These corrupting attractions belong not to the 
office, but to the circumstances with which a false 
policy has surrounded it. The love of power is 
innate, ineradicable, and, unless under the control 
of divine grace, inordinate. To the human heart 
office is nothing, save as it is a means of acquiring, 
and an instrument for exercising, the power, which 
it loves ; and even as such means and instrument, 
it is, perhaps, of less importance than many sup- 
pose. The main sources of power lie within a 
man, and when the spring is deep and copious, if 
it do not find, it will force, a channel for its gush- 
ings ; if it do not meet, it will make, an office, into 
which it may vault and ride on high among the 
people. And when human ambition makes an 
office for itself, it is apt to make it somewhat 
higher than God, in His wisdom, has seen fit to 
ordain. As I have already shown, Archbishops, 
Patriarchs, and Popes, are not naturally developed 



246 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

Episcopacy, but man's aspirings, vaulting above 
primitive order ; and, had that order been Pres- 
byterial only, the leap upwards would have been 
quite as possible, and perhaps somewhat higher. 
So far as the theory of the Episcopal office is con- 
cerned, it may be said, that, where no due grada- 
tion in the ministry is established and conceded, 
the ambitions which live deep in our nature, and 
the difficulty of maintaining simple equality among 
masses of men of varying abilities, tastes and op- 
portunities, will be more likely to engender strifes 
after superiority of place and power, than where 
such gradation in the ministry is established and 
conceded, and where the very fixedness of institu- 
tions tends, so far as anything can tend, to gener- 
ate a spirit of quiet submission and contentment 
of mind under the reigu of lawful and acknowl- 
edged order. 

The best illustration both of the theory and of 
the working of true Episcopacy may be gathered 
from the early ages of the Church. What, then, 
was a Bishop designed to be ; and what was he in 
the pristine days of his office ? Why, simply, the 
most conspicuous follower of Christ, as well in 
poverty and sufferings, as in the aboundings of his 
toils for the souls of men ; the very front mark, in 
the Christian army, to the arrow of the destroyer 
and the sword of the persecutor ! '' Nolo JEpisGO- 



GOVERNMENT. 



21-7 



pari " was then the utterance, not of a counterfeit 
modesty, but, of an honest heart, speaking out of 
its deepest sensibilities, and meaning just this-: 
that, ''if the Master would mercifully excuse His 
servant, he would prefer laboring in some less per- 
ilous post of duty." The Episcopal office was not 
sought by the worldly or the ambitious then. It 
could not be urged successfully upon any but those, 
who were ''constrained by the love of Christ" and 
the souls of men to " count all things but loss," and 
to be counted but as " the offscouringof all things." 
Then, the influence of the office was not corrupting 
but purifying. It drew into that front ministrj^ 
none but the choicest of the fine gold ; and it drew 
that gold thither but to refine it still more perfect- 
ly, even as in a furnace of fire ! Those days will 
never return ; but the time may come, — God send 
it soon — when the office of a Bishop shall have 
nothing to attract the heart but superior opportun- 
ities for doing good in the salvation of men amid 
more abounding toils, privations and hardships, 
endured from love to the dear Saviour of our souls, 
and to those for whom He so freely shed His own 
precious blood. The idea that this office must be 
dignified by surrounding it with an adventitious 
array of wealth, and titles, and places of honor, 
seems like an imputation on the lowly Jesus ; a 
mere earthly conception of the true dignity of a 



248 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

Bishop ; as if the work of Christ and the office of 
one of His chief ambassadors did not shine bright- 
est and most heavenly when seen, like the stars, at 
night ; surrounded, if need be, by the darkness of 
poverty, and of a wicked world's frown ! True 
Bishops need not court either poverty or persecu- 
tion ; neither should they ignobly shun them ; and, 
least of all, should they covet equality with the great 
of this world in the external circumstances of 
wealth, place and power. Their influence will be 
most extended, most benign, when, in character 
and labors, they are most like Christ ; and when 
they partake most largely in the spirit of that 
Apostle, who "rejoiced in his sufferings for the 
brethren, and in filling up what was behind of the 
afflictions of Christ for His body's sake, which is 
the Church." 

Such, then, is the Episcopacy which a scriptural 
teacher may well dare to advocate ; an Episcopacy 
separated from what belongs not to it, save in com- 
mon with other sj^stems ; from what springs out of 
a corrupt nature and corrupting historic influences. 
It is as proper to limit our views to such an Epis- 
copacy, as, in estimating the value of other forms 
of the ministry, to suppose those who fill them to 
be good men. In estimating the value of any con- 
stitution of the ministry, no one would go on the 



GOVERNMENT. 



•49 



supposition that its incumbents were bad men, or 
needlessly embarrassed by obstacles hostile to 
their proper usefulness. We have viewed Episco- 
pacy as it ought to be ; as it was in its pristine 
age ; as it has been since, in numerous happy in- 
stances ; as it is now, in many instances not less 
happy ; and as we doubt not it will be every where, 
when the abuses of the ages shall have been all 
swept away, and when the Episcopacy of elder 
times shall be seen opening its rich stores of spirit- 
ual blessing and pouring them into the lap of a 
thankful Church and of a once thankless world ; 
pre-eminently good in both its offices, that of ruling 
the Church by the discipline of order, and that of 
guiding the Church by the discipline of truth ; rul- 
ing the Church on the middle ground between the 
two extremes of papal tyranny and popular mis- 
rule ; and guiding Christians into the way of life 
both by " driving away hurtful and strange error," 
and by giving its best effect to saving, divine 
Truth. 

We have taken but a partial view of a great sub- 
ject ; leaving the details of Church government, as 
distributed between the ministry and the other 
members, to be treated under the more general 
head of Ecclesiastical Polity, and confining our- 
selves to the single topic of the advantages of 



250 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

Episcopacy in ministering to the WELL-being of the 
Church ; and even on this single topic we have 
said but little, though, I would hope, enough to 
commend this institution to the favorable regards 
of all spiritually enlightened minds. 



CHAPTER III. 

WORSHIP. 

A FTER what was said in the last Chapter of 
-^^ Government, as necessary to the well-being 
of the visible Church, we may next turn our thoughts 
to WORSHIP as needful to the same end. 

Worship, in its outward manifestations, like gov- 
ernment in its various forms, has always and every- 
where been a function of the visible Church. No 
one form of worship, indeed, can be used as a mark 
for ascertaining the true comprehension of the 
Church ; nevertheless, no part of the Church has 
ever been without worship in some form ; though 
it were a form without words. The Church, in 
truth, is essentially a worshiping Body. 

The requisites to all acceptable worship are 
stated with admirable precision by Him who spake 
as "never man spake." ''The true worshipers 
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. '^ 
All acceptable worship must unite these two quali- 
ties. It must be "in spirit,'' as distinguished from 
mere outward form and ceremony, mere external 

(351) 



252 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

offerings and sacrifices j and as implying an inward 
and spiritual act, an earnest engagement of the 
mind and heart, the strong spiritual action of the 
soul itself. It must also be "in truth," as involving 
sincerity, and as opposed to hypocrisy and to all 
mistaken or artificial excitement of the mind ; as 
being aided by the Spirit of truth, and based on 
right views of Him who is the Truth, and of His 
Word as a revelation of His truth. All who thus 
'' worship the Father in spirit and in truth," are 
accepted of Him, and none others can be. "He 
seeketh such to worship Him,'' and with none 
others can He be pleased. All outward forms of 
worship, if vacated of this spirit and this truth, are 
as smoke in His nostrils, an offense to His eye, 
and an insult to His ear. He " is a Spirit," and 
looketh right through all outward acts and forms, 
and seeth at a glance whether they are, like Him- 
self, filled with spirit and with truth ; or whether, 
like the hypocrite, the formalist, or the visionary, 
they are full of the empty mockery of the knee', 
the lip and the eye, or but as the glare of a false, 
deceitful lire. 

The forms in which worship is offered are not 
unimportant. The silent worship of the soul is, 
indeed, a sublime offering, and goes up to God as 
an "incense of a sweet-smelling savor." Never- 
theless, in the action of the Church visible, it can 



WORSHIP. 253 

never reasonably take the place of a worship ex- 
pressing itself in some appropriate outward form. 
It is, therefore, an inquiry of some interest, in what 
form this worship may best be offered? Unless 
we adopt the practice of a silent worship, some 
outward form the Church must necessarily have. 
Which form, then, conduces most to the well-being 
of the Church, the Liturgical or the Extempora- 
neous ? 

I rest the subject on the ground of comparative 
merit, because the Bible does not, by explicit pre- 
cept, enjoin either the one or the other of these 
forms. This absence of binding Scriptural author- 
ity for any one form of public worship is so mani- 
fest, that the American — following herein the Eng- 
lish — Preface to the Book of Common Prayer, has 
laid it down as the ground of one of its rules, that 
" the particular forms of Divine Worship are things, 
in their own nature, indifferent and alterable, and 
so acknowledged.'' Any organized visible Church, 
in settling the question for itself, may adopt either 
form ; and, having so done, may alter or change 
the one for the other, provided, in such alteration 
or change, it act, as our Preface expresses it, ^' by 
common consent and authority." 

Following general custom, our Church has en- 
joined worship by a Liturgy : and until, '' by com- 
mon consent and authority," this form be altered 



2 54 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

or abolished, it is not admissible for us, as a Church, 
to use any other form than that prescribed. 

It is needless to say that worship by such a form 
may be offered, as God requires, "in spirit and in 
truth." This no candid mind will deny. The fact 
that the worship of the Temple and of the Syna- 
gogue was by such a form, and that the holy Jesus 
was in the habit of joining it in both places, forever 
settles this point ; and should satisfy all who object 
that worship by a prescribed form is opposed or 
unfriendly to worship ''in spirit and in truth.'* 
Either such a form is congruous with these interior 
requisites, or Christ has sanctioned by His exam- 
ple what by His words He has condemned. 

In comparing the two forms now in view, it is 
not necessary to sympathize in many of the stric- 
tures w^hich are passed upon Extemporaneous Wor- 
ship. We may even freely admit that, following 
simple nature, taught and aided by the Spirit, the 
heart is strongly inclined to pour forth its emotions 
and desires, its faith and love, into the bosom and 
upon the ear of God in the unstudied language of 
gushing earnestness and affection ; and that wor- 
ship thus offered is highly acceptable to Him "■ that 
looketh on the heart." We may take this view 
without touching the real merits of the question 
whether, in the public worship of the Church, the 
advantages of a previously enjoined mode prepon- 



WORSHIP. 



255 



derate over those of an extemporaneous form? 
This question must be settled — not by reference to 
what simple nature, influenced by divine grace, 
would prompt the heart to do by itself, but — by 
reference to what is demanded by the complex and, 
in its simplest form, artificial structure of the visi- 
ble Church ; by the involved and multiform inter- 
ests and influences of its social organization. 

In examining this point, the view generally 
taken — as in the treatise of the philosophic Paley — 
virtually supposes the mind of the Church to be, 
in the main, at rest ; in a state of religious repose, 
which renders it a fit subject for the just develop- 
ment of the comparative excellences of the two 
modes of worship. And if the mind of the Church 
could always be, and be kept, in such a state, this 
would be the true light in which to study the sub- 
ject. But, the mind of the Church is not always, 
nor when it is can it always be kept, in such a 
state. From within itself, and from without, it is 
often excited, put in motion, and driven, if not into 
progress, at least towards a change. In these 
states of mind, too, it may happen that, so far as 
the majority are affected, theological views are 
shifting, doctrines are in transition, faith is unset- 
tled, and customs are upheaved. These, therefore, 
are the periods . most proper for testing the com- 
parative value of the two modes of public worship 



256 THE LlVma TE3IPLE. 

in the Church. I shall look at the subject in the 
light of such a state of things. Such a state now 
exists, and has long existed ; and it has affected, 
not one part only, but the whole of Protestant 
Christendom. We may add, that — except when 
its spiritual life has either become stagnant amid 
the corruptions of error, superstition and worldli- 
ness, or been raised to a point of purity and power 
seldom if ever realized on earth — the Church is 
never free from such a state in the agitations and 
tendencies of what may be termed its general 
mind. 

In approaching now the point of comparison be- 
fore us, let us endeavor to get a distinct view of 
the true attitude of the devotional mind in all pub- 
lic worship. 

When engaged in such worship, then, the devo- 
tional mind is — not in the intellectually critical, 
but — in the spiritually receptive state. In its de- 
vout longings after heavenly things, it is like a 
hungry, confiding babe, longing for nourishment 
and ''opening its mouth wide" that it may be 
** filled." In relation to the leader of its devotions, 
it is not disposed to pause and criticise his utter- 
ances, but rather inclined to follow and speed them 
upwards with its heartfelt "Amens." Tlie really 
praying mind instinctively shrinks from the meta- 
physical difficulty of carrying on two distinct, simul- 



WORSHIP. 257 

taneous trains of thought, the one devotional, the 
other critical. It cannot stop to question each suc- 
cessive utterance of its leader, to compare each 
with the standard of truth, and then to judge 
whether or not it cover a heresy. It is inclined to 
repose with confidence on his soundness, to catch 
his utterances as they flow warm from his heart 
and his lips, and with a constant and impulsive, 
though silent, ''Amen," to wing them upwards to 
the Throne on the swelling importunity of united 
prayer. This, in all public worship, is the true 
attitude of the devotional mind. Any other atti- 
tude is unfitting the occasion. It would turn what 
should be the offering of a pure worship into a train- 
ing of the mere critical intellect. I say — not 
merely that such should be, but — that such is the 
attitude of the devotional mind ; the attitude which 
that mind seeks and maintains in public worship. 
When it changes this attitude for some other, it 
ceases to be a devotional, and becomes a critical, 
speculative, or discursive mind ; or a mind in some 
other attitude, equally foreign from the subject of 
true worship. 

I. As acting, then, on this attitude of the devo- 
tional mind, let us look, first, at the tendency of an 
EXTEMPORANEOUS modc of worship during such a 
period of movement in the mind of the Church as 
that which we have been contemplating. 
17 



258 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



A deep, perhaps a silent and ud noticed current 
of speculation and threatened change is running 
through the ecclesiastical mind. The minister of 
a congregation, worshiping extemporaneously, 
falls into this current, moves with it, and is, in fact, 
one of the few who, either intelligently or by sym- 
pathetic influence, directs its course. If, now, he 
be conscious of the change which is taking place in 
the mind of the Church, and in his own mind, and 
if withal he be an honest and a bold man, he will 
utter his new convictions in his public devotions ; 
and thus, if those new convictions belong to what 
his Church-standards deem heterodoxy, he may be 
detected ; and, unless his congregation sympathize 
with him, he may, by an act of discipline, be re- 
moved from his post of influence. But, if he be 
at first without any distinct consciousness of the 
change which is passing in his own mind ; and if, 
though an honest, he be yet a timid man ; or if, as 
it may possibly happen, he be a man of unscrupu- 
lous conscience, who knows what he is doing, and 
who intends, so far as his influence can go, to lead 
the Church away from its fixed and ancient land- 
marks of faith and doctrine ; and who, in the 
strength and fervor of his new convictions, deems 
it right to effect his great and, as he regards it, 
good end by politic and artful means ; in any of 
these cases a plaiD and easy way lies open for his 



WORSHIP. 259 

eacrance. While his people are in the attitude of 
the devotional mind, looking upon their leader in 
worship as also their teacher in doctrine, confiding 
in his guidance of their devotions, unsuspectingly 
drinking at the stream of worshiping thought as 
it flows from his lips, appropriating his utterances 
as their own, and sending them up with their silent 
*'Amens " to God ; while they are waiting upon him 
in this spirit, he at first, either unconsciously or by 
design, omits, not only in teaching, but especially 
in worship, all reference to those old and distinct- 
ive truths of Christianity, in which the ancient 
doctrinal standards of his Church had been set up. 
What follows ? In a few years these distinctive 
truths lose, by simple neglect, their practical im- 
portance and hold on the mind ; a strange dimness 
comes over the spiritual perceptions of the flock, 
and all that once constituted, in their view, the pe- 
culiarity of the Christian faith, lies, at length, as if 
under a dense and distant fog. And now, as his 
own convictions deepen and strengthen, and fill him 
with the impulses of their new-born power, or, as 
he observantly finds the way prepared for further 
movement, he yields to those worshiping convic- 
tions, and begins to advance the new views to 
which he had been led ; not, at first, in a full and 
startling dress, but in a softened and unsuspicious 
form. The devotional mind has already become 



26o THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

accustomed to the absence of the old forms of 
faith and doctrine : it now becomes familiar with 
the presence of the new phase of theology, exhib- 
iting, as yet, much that is plausible and apparentlj^ 
compatible with accredited views. The way is 
thus prepared for a still further movement. Under 
the growing change which has seized it, the mind 
of the people becomes distinctly conscious of a 
positive dislike of what it can recall of the old 
orthoxody. It therefore endures, with something 
like a relish, the fuller and bolder invectives 
against that system which began to be hazarded 
even in teaching, and which, perhaps unconsciously, 
partake somewhat of the extravagance of carica- 
ture. In this state of mind, the full result of the 
movement has approached its birth. The work of 
change becomes complete, and both minister and 
people finish their transition \}j passing, openly 
and avowedly, into some one of the new, erroneous, 
and perhaps fatal theologic systems of the day. A 
minority, it may be, remain steadfast in their old 
faith ; but, this only insures a new division in the 
Church, the organization of a new and feeble con- 
gregation, and, peradventure, an embittered legal 
contest about the temporalities, which such a di- 
vision involves. Which way soever this contest 
ends, the body of the congregation is led off from 
its former faith j and if the change be from truth to 



WORSHIP, 261 

error, the Christian doctrine is either partially, or 
totally subverted, and the living efficiency of the 
Gospel, either seriously, or totally nullified. 

This view makes — not against the private liberty 
of any man to form, or to alter his personal faith 
on his personal responsibility to God, but — against 
the stability of the public and settled faith of the 
Church. It is intended to show the operation, un- 
der given circumstances, of the extemporaneous 
mode of worship ; and it explains a large class of 
facts, familiar to multitudes of the past and present 
age. If the faith of Churches, organized on the 
Congregational or Independent basis, have been 
more frequently overthrown by the influence, or 
eo-operation, of this mode of worship than that of 
other bodies worshiping in the same mode, it is, 
as I infer, simply because the Congregational or 
Independent system of government makes each or- 
ganized, worshiping assembly a separate Church, 
with the powers of government and discipline com- 
plete in itself, and subject to little or no controlling, 
or even advisory oversight from other and similar- 
ly organized bodies. The tendency, or liability, 
to such a subversion of the faith evidently exists 
wherever this mode of worship is adopted ; and the 
results of the tendency, or liability, are exhibited, 
with more or less distinctness, through all the 
spreadings of the system. 



262 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

11. In the second place, let us look at the ten- 
dency of public worship by a form, previously 
settled and enjoined, as acting on the devotional 
mind of the Church, during the same period of ex- 
citement and threatened change. 

By way of preparation for such a view, it is but 
right to state the only ground on which an enlight- 
ened Christian will attempt the defense of such a 
form. For a form, in the abstract, such a Christian 
can have no over-weening fondness. His defense 
must rest on the character of the particular form 
adopted. He will demand that such a form, be- 
sides being constructed on just logical principles, 
and in conformit}^ with those of a simple, pure 
taste ; besides comprehending all the ordinarj^ 
wants of a worshiping assemblj^, and providing 
reasonably for all special occasions of public peti- 
tion and thanks to God ; besides being filled with 
trne and ennobling, attractive and inspiring views 
of the Most High, and with the very spirit of hum- 
ble and reverential, fervent and affectionate devo- 
tion from man, shall embody all the great and es- 
sential, unchanging and saving verities of the 
Gospel, free from any dangerous admixtures of 
human error. A Liturgy need not be filled with 
dogmatic theology, nor be modeled on the ordinary 
forms of instruction, nor consist of prayers turned 
into preaching. It need not recognize doubtful, or 



WORSHIP. 263 

unessential points in divinity ; nor present even the 
essential, fundamental verities of the G-ospel in a 
systematic, or controversial dress ; but it should be 
based on all these great varities as its foundation ; 
it should use them all devotionally ; it should work 
them all into its confessions and petitions, its 
thanksgivings and intercessions, its ascriptions and 
adorations, its anthems and hymns ; in the power 
and savor and prevalency of them all, it should as- 
cend, and seek to make the worshiping heart 
ascend, to the throne, and the ear, and the heart 
of Him who loveth the truth, as well as heareth 
His true people's prayer. 

A Liturgy, too, should thus embody these living 
truths, free from all dangerous admixture of human 
error ; because, if it exclude these truths, or if, 
while retaining, it overlay them with a covering of 
such error, the very reasons which commend the 
use of a Liturgy, rightly constructed, would legis- 
late against it and banish it utterly from the devo- 
tions of a redeemed and worshiping flock. A Litur- 
gy, thus defective, or thus infected, would either 
want the soul of true Christian worship, or stereo- 
type error, in its most imperishable forms, on the 
hearts and the habits, the memory and the mind, of 
far-reaching generations. Were the use of such 
Liturgies as might be named to become universal in 
the Church, it had been better for " the faith once 



264 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

delivered to the saints," had the printiag art lain 
undiscovered, had the pen never traced a prayer 
beyond those recorded on the inspired page, and 
had the true servants of Christ been left, with 
nothing but the Bible and the Spirit to teach, and 
with nothing but their own hearts and tongues tQ 
tell out, their adoring thoughts and their in-felt 
wants to God. 

Whether the Liturgy, which we use, be construct- 
ed according to the principles just stated, I cannot 
stop minutely to inquire. For our form we claim 
not perfection. We may, however, safely leave 
the question of its character to all fair and candid 
minds, even among those who prefer, or continue 
to use, an extemporaneous worship. From many 
of the most enlightened and pious of evangelical 
Christians of other names, our Liturgy has received 
the highest and most eloquent commendations, on 
the ground of its conformity with the principles, 
which I have stated ; while some, if not all of the 
faults, which the eye of Paley detected in the Eng- 
lish Book, were removed from the American, when 
we came to adapt it to the altered political condi- 
tion of our country, as it took its stand among in- 
dependent nations. With these remarks, then, I 
assume that our Liturgy is remarkably full and 
rich in the saving truths of the Gospel ; that it is 
free — not, as some too idolatrously ween, from all 



womnip. 265 

human error, but — as we may safely claim, from 
all daugerous admixtures of sucli error ; that it is 
constructed on the justest principles of logic and of 
taste ; that it is copious in its provisions for all the 
general and for most of the special wants of a wor- 
shiping people ; and that it abounds in such lowly 
and self-abasing acts of confession and supplication, 
and in such fervent and sublime strains of devotion 
and praise, that the most broken-hearted penitent 
may well pour out his heart in the former, while 
glorified angels, were they visibly present, might 
cordially utter their loud "Amens " to the latter. 
I proceed, now, with the subject. 

Let us, then, suppose that a minister of a par- 
ticular congregation, worshiping b}^ such a form, is 
in the same condition of mind as that before instan- 
ced. He has fallen into the current, which is set- 
ting so deeply and strongly through the general 
religious mind ; he moves with that current ; he 
reaches the result to which it tends ; he becomes 
an ERRORiST, perhaps of the most dangerous kind. 
What, then, is the position in v>^hich he finds him- 
self as one who may wish to change the faith of the 
Church into a conformity with his newly adopted 
views ? 

If he be a dishonest man, or a man of unscrupul- 
ous conscience, who thinks it right to effect what 
he deems a good end by means which others would 



266 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

regard as of questionable morality, he cannot take 
advantage of the devoutly responding spirit of his 
worshiping congregation. He cannot make his 
people drink at the stream of his errors through 
the confidings of a mind, ready to follow with its 
impulsive *'Amens" the utterances of a trusted and 
warmly earnest leader. Though he himself be 
steeped in heresy, yet that to which they say 
'^Amen " is full of the richness and life of God's 
truth. Tf, therefore, he attempt to disseminate his 
errors, he can do so nowhere save in the pulpit, or 
from the press, or by conversation ; and the mo- 
ment he makes this attempt, whichever medium of 
influence he adopts, he must pour his doctrine — 
not into the heart of their worshiping contidence, 
but — into the ear of his people's critical intel- 
lect. In this enterprise, he has before him — not a 
body of trustful, adoring, appropriating minds, 
but — a congregation who feel that the reason and 
the understanding which he addresses are their 
own ; who have a right to judge him by his ac- 
knowledged and sworn standards ; and who, in 
their jealous watchfulness over those standards will 
not be slow either to detect or to arraign the ad- 
venturous delinquent. Examples of the operation 
of this principle have not been wanting even with- 
in the limits of our brief history as an independent 
ecclesiastical organization. The case of Me»nzies 



WORSHIP. 267 

Eaj^iior, of the diocese of Connecticut, who attempt- 
ed to teach one of the forms of heresy from his pul- 
pit, but who, notwithstanding the cautiousness 
of his attempt, was detected and removed from the 
ministry, was one in point. And if our Church 
should ever fail to detect and cut off such errorists, 
it will be — not because she wants means to detect 
them, but — because she will have proved unfaith- 
ful to her Master, and to her work ; an unfaithful- 
ness for which she would deserve the chastening, 
which detected but allowed corruptions can never 
fail, sooner or later, to ensure. 

But, suppose a case of more frequent occurrence ; 
that the minister, though an errorist, is yet an 
honest man ; strong in his convictions, yet with 
a live conscience in his bosom. As his convic- 
tions gain strength, we will suppose them to settle 
in the direction of the rationalistic extreme. It 
is evident, now, that he cannot continue in the use 
of our Liturgy. This embodies and is based on 
truths, or, as he will consider them, errors, which 
will make his head ache every time he utters them 
on his knees against his new convictions and amid 
his people's hearty " Amens." What, then, shall 
he do ? A hypocrite's part he cannot play, for he 
is an honest man, and has a conscience whose fair 
answer is of more value to him than millions of 
wealth and pinnacles of honor ; and a wound upon 



268 THE LIVINa TEMPLE. 

which he more dreads than poverty, and obscurity 
and rags. There is but one thing which he can 
do. He must retire from his ministry. A resist- 
less voice within commands the movement. He 
obeys. And thus, so far as his influence can 
directly and officially reach her faith, the Church 
is safe. Examples of the operation of this prin- 
ciple are familiar to all who are familiar with the 
recent history of our Church ; and the entire ab- 
sence of cases, in which an Episcopal congrega- 
tion has been led away from the faith of their 
Church, speaks, on this point, a strong language. 

To this remark, the cas3 of '* King's Chapel^'^ 
Boston, is no exception. In his history of that 
Chapel, Greenwood says, indeed, that this, " The 
first Episcopal Church in New England, became 
the first Unitarian Church in the United States. ^^ 
But this is an incorrect statement. That was not 
a case in which an Episcopal Church became Uni- 
tarian ; but a case, in which an edifice, once occu- 
pied by an Episcopal congregation, subsequently 
passed into the possession of Unitarians. The 
building, virtually vacated by the incidents of our 
Eevolutionary War of its Episcopal occupants, 
passed at length into the hands of a congregation 
mostly new and Unitarian. No sooner, however, 
was this transfer of the building effected, than it 
was resolved to alter the Liturgy, by striking out 



WORSHIP. 269 

all references to the great doctrine of the Trinity. 
It was equally impossible for the new congrega- 
tion, as honest men, to worship with the old Prayer 
Book, and for Dr. Freeman, their lay-reader, as an 
honest candidate for our ministry, to obtain Epis- 
copal ordination. Had the original congregation of 
King's Chapel never been dispersed by the hand 
of war, and the use of our Liturgy never been in- 
terrupted by the hand of mutilation, that vener- 
able edifice and that ancient congregation would 
doubtless have remained to this day in our com- 
munion ; the people as sound in the faith as the 
Prayer Book is loyal to the Truth of the Son of 
God. 

But, suppose the convictions of the minister to 
have settled — not in the direction of the rationalist, 
but— in that of the ritualist extreme. In this case, 
he is met by an opposite, but scarcely less opera- 
tive, characteristic of our Liturgy ; its blank va- 
cancy of all that can minister to the longings of 
that peculiar taste, which accompanies, perhaps 
induces, the adoption of Eoraish dogmas and ob- 
servances ; which accompanies that adoption as 
uniformly as the shadow follows its substance ; 
which may induce that adoption as naturally as 
any cause induces its own effect. In continuing 
the use of our Liturgy, such a minister finds no 
penance for the post-baptismal transgressor, no 



270 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



mass for the worshiper of transubstantiated ele- 
ments ; no trace of a confessional, no eulogy upon 
human merits ; no prayer for the dead, no help 
for patients under purgatorial discipline ; no note 
of wonder at the miracles of the Church, no viati- 
cum for the distressed " in exi/i^eims f'' no paean to 
celibacy, no laud to virginity ; no shrine for a con- 
secrated relic, no receptacle for an anointed pic- 
ture ; in short, not a single ceremony designed for 
pomp, nor a solitary contrivance for inspiring awe ; 
but all plain and decent in posture, all simple and 
beautiful in order ; all sound and scriptural in sig- 
nification, all rational yet fervent in devotion ; nor 
can he introduce into the forms which he uses any- 
thing to awaken in others the longings which are 
consuming himself ; not a word of truth can he 
leave out, nor a syllable of error bring in, while 
conducting the worship of the Church ; nothing 
can he do towards the end at which he aims, be- 
yond a few poor changes of posture and of cos- 
tume, which, by their very meagreness, fail to 
satisfy himself, while, by their dim pointing to- 
wards something more startlingly significant, they 
displease most others, and betray the secret errors 
which would beguile them from their faith. His 
position, in truth, becomes one of serious embar- 
rassment. The cravings of his secret appetite are 
left in unfed, painful hunger, and the steps of his 



WORSHIP. 271 

half-timid movements are watchecl by a thousand 
reproving looks, until, even if lie succeed in screen- 
ing his errors from ecclesiastical censure, his con- 
science, as an honest man, and his feelings as a 
self-respecting man, compel him to abandon a 
ministry to which he can no longer be comfort- 
ably loyal, and thus to deliver the Church from 
the beguilings of his example and from the in- 
fluence of his teachings. 

In truth, the pressure of this negative character 
of our Liturgy, at one time, stimulated the efforts 
of some in England to restore to credit and use 
the long discarded Romish Breviary. Amid what 
it deemed the ceremonial poverty of the Anglican 
forms, the ritual spirit felt a painful sense of want 
not easily to be endured. It therefore sought else- 
where its necessary food ; first, by endeavoring to 
bring that food to itself in the English Church ; 
and finally, when that was found impracticable, 
by going after it to the Church of Rome. Yerily, 
then, the ritual spirit, so far as it finds entrance 
into our American Episcopal Church, must be in 
a most famishing condition amid the more severely 
simple forms in which its worship is set forth. 
These forms are, indeed, rich to those who love 
the manna, and beautiful to those who admire the 
simplicity of Divine Truth ; but they must be poor 
to those who long for the splendid ornaments, and 



272 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

common to those who sigh for the imposing pomps 
of Eome's gorgeous ritual. It can be no matter 
for wonder if such should be incessantly studying 
change. Our Liturgy cannot satisfy their crav- 
ings, nor can they ever use it in diffusing through 
the Church their peculiar theology and their un- 
satisfied tastes. 

The view now taken, illustrates still further the 
influence of our scriptural Liturgy, when operating 
— not only on a single congregation during the 
ministry of a single man, but also on the whole ec- 
clesiastical bod}^, and through a long succession of 
ages. In this view, its influence is eminently con- 
servative of the true faith of the Gospel. Full, as 
it is, of the marrow of Divine Truth, correct and 
chaste in style, fervent and often sublime in spirit, 
it is also a composition, with which we become in- 
timately familiar. It lives in our earliest and 
latest, our fondest and holiest associations. It fur- 
nishes much of our worshiping language, and 
many of our worshiping thoughts, in social and 
even in secret prayer ; and though its public use 
fill not oar prayers with sermons, yet its remem- 
bered strains fill our hearts with doctrines, and 
that -in their most valuable forms j not laid up as 
sharp weapons in the armory of our critical intel- 
lect, but preserved as living truths in the spirit of 
pure devotion. Thus associated, imbibed, and em- 



WORSHIP. 273 

balmed, the truths of our religion operate on the 
heart and mind of imitative childhood, of receptive 
youth, of digestive manhood, and of ruminating 
age ; and thus become, as it were, inwrought into 
the substance of the Church, and live and act as 
elements in her enduring constitution. The pro- 
cess may give to our ecclesiastical temperament 
less of the excitable, the impulsive, and the fitfully 
strenuous ; yet it probably imparts to that temper- 
ament more of the contemplative, the healthful and 
the long-lived. 

Thus far, we have been looking at the two modes 
of worship tn their comparative action on the devo- 
tional mind. If we were to examine that action on 
the unworshiping mind, we should possibly find 
the comparison somewhat modified. If the devout 
mind, by listening to a set form, learn to repeat by 
rote what it cares not to ponder ; by listening to 
an extemporaneous form it may learn to listen with 
incredulity to what it cannot appreciate, or with 
idle curiosity to what offends its tastes. Under 
such a set form as ours, if the indevout mind learn 
anything, it learns nothing but God's truth. Under 
an extemporaneous form, while it may learn God's 
truth, it will prove quite as susceptible as the de- 
vout spirit itself both to the absence of such truth 
and to the presence of the opposite error. And 
when the hour of change comes, the indevout and 
18 



274 ^^^ LIVING TEMPLE. 

careless mind will be found even more ready than 
that which has seriously and thoroughly digested 
its errors, for the deciding movement which is to 
follow : since, with error, in all its forms, the natu- 
ral mind has a stronger affinity than the spiritual ; 
while the spiritual mind has something, but the 
natural has nothing, to restrain its inborn aver- 
sion to the self-mortifying strictness of Christi- 
anity. 

III. The two forms of worship might be compar- 
ed on a few other points ; but the design of this 
Treatise does not call me to discuss them fully. It 
may not, however, be amiss to give them a brief 
notice. 

The principal objections, then, to worship by a 
previously enjoined form are two : 1. The use of 
such a form tends to formalism. The tongue, in its 
familiarity with the sounds, repeats language, which 
an un tasked attention fails of carrj^ing significant- 
ly to the heart. 2. Such a form is incapable of 
adaptation to many of the most interesting exigen- 
ces of times, places and circumstances. It is not 
effective in awakening the religious sensibilities, 
and in cultivating the religious affections, amid the 
ceaseless and often impressive providential inci- 
dents of life. 

In each of these objections we may freely con- 



WORSHIP. 275 

cede that there is a certain amount of force ; and 
yet, I think, they admit of a fair reply. 

1. Though a candid mind will not hesitate to con- 
cede the tendency of forms to formalism, yet a dis- 
criminating mind can see that the tendency is 
stronger in the sound of words than in the experi- 
ence of Christians. But, whatever be the strength 
of the tendency, it is not irresistible. The life and 
spirit of religion, as ordinarily attendant on an 
earnest and faithful preaching of the Gospel, will 
keep this tendency within as narrow limits, under 
the use of set forms of worship, as under that of 
the extemporaneous mode. We must not forget 
that the tendency to formalism in worship is not 
limited to the use of set-forms of worship. It is 
the tendency of our nature, even when partially 
sanctified, and worshiping in the least formal way. 
Safety from it, under all circumstances, is the gra- 
cious reward of nothing but strict and unsleeping 
watchfulness over the state of the heart and over 
the spirit of its devotions ; and, on these conditions, 
that safety is as well assured to those who worship 
by a prescribed, as to those who use an extempora- 
neous mode. And this is as true of those who 
lead, as it is of those who follow, in the stated wor- 
ship of the Church. 

2. While it need not be denied that a prescribed 
form of worship is incapable of minute and perfect 



276 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

adaptation to the ever changing exigences of life ; 
it may be claimed that this disadvantage is, per- 
haps, more than counterbalanced by accompanying 
safeguards against the evils to which, through its 
very capabilities in this respect, extemporaneous 
worship is exposed. In the use of prescribed 
forms, the officiating minister cannot make his own 
feelings and experience, private and often peculiar, 
jar upon the common and often dissimilar feelings 
and experiences of his fellow-worshipers j nor can 
one minister ever be praying for what another is, 
at the same time, deprecating. Neither can our 
officiator ever fall into the painfully embarrassing 
hesitations, mistakes and improprieties of expres- 
ion, which so often mar the public devotional exer- 
cises of ungifted minds ; nor can he ever follow the 
eccentricities of his own genius, or the habits which 
grow out of custom, and thus be led into irreverent 
familiarities, rash extravagances, startling expres- 
sions, flights of oratory, informing narratives before 
Grod, or virtual sermonizing before men. Of our 
forms no one can ever say, what, on a special oc- 
casion, was once said of the devotional exercise of 
a popular minister, and what, if intended as a 
grave compliment, was yet an awful sarcasm, — 
" That was the most eloquent prayer ever address- 
ed to a Boston audience." 

When these and like things are considered, it 



WORSHIP. ^jj 

will be evident that prescribed forms of worship 
have some peculiar advantages, and are free from 
some special disadvantages ; and that, if extempo- 
raneous worship be, at times, and for an occasion, 
remarkably impressive and effective ; it is, at other 
times, and on other occasions, embarrassingly lame, 
or disturbingly eccentric ; often unprofitable in its 
matter, and more often didactic, rather than devo- 
tional, in its dress ; while worship by a prescribed, 
and scriptural form is always decent and dignified, 
devout and solemn, elevated and edifying ; uniform- 
ly fit to be offered by sinful and penitent, believing 
and adoring mortals, at the footstool of that throne, 
whereon is seated the High and the Holy, the all- 
knowing and the all-gracious Immortal. 

It would be easy to enlarge on these and similar 
points of comparison ; but my purpose leads me no 
further in this direction. My main object has 
been to present the subject in what seems to me 
one of its strong lights ; and, having done so, to 
leave it for contemplation in the hours of still and 
quiet thought. The points, thus briefly noticed, 
show that each of the two modes of worship has its 
peculiar advantages, and its peculiar disadvanta- 
ges ; and that, as these advantages and disadvanta- 
ges are brought before different minds by the 
forces of education, amid the circumstances of life 
and the varieties of human temperament, it is not 



2;8 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

strange that some should strongly lean to the ex- 
temporaneous, while others as strongly incline to 
the pre-composed form. Allowing, however, that 
the general argument on either side were more 
evenly balanced than it appears to be ; still, the 
special view which I have presented, comes, in my 
judgment, with a largely preponderating weight 
upon the question, and moves the balance decided- 
ly in favor of public worship by a scriptural, 
prescribed form. 

Some, I doubt not, would turn my argument in 
favor of an opposite conclusion. The fact that such 
a form of worship tends to stereotype the faith and 
doctrines of the Church on the minds of the people, 
as well as on the parchment of their records, fur- 
nishes, with them, the very reason why all such 
forms should be rejected from the worship of the 
Church. They hold not to this fixedness of faith 
and doctrine in religion. They are believers in 
PROGRESS, in development, in this as in other sub- 
jects. They consider religion, like philosophy, im- 
provable ; not on]}^ capable of more and more 
perfect comprehension, and tending to improve 
human character in the individual and in the mass ; 
but also, admitting of changes and new discoveries 
in its own elementary principles. They would, 
therefore, take away forms, creeds, reverence — 
everything that can stand as a barrier against full 



WORSHIP. 



279 



and perfect liberty of change and progress. Un- 
cLangeableness in the Church's faith and forms is 
to them an offense. It gives no chance to their im- 
provements upon what is commonly regarded as 
the divine plan and wisdom. The argument, there- 
fore, here urged, instead of convincing, sets them 
more firmly than ever in their opposition to all 
prescript worship, even by the best of forms. 

With such minds, of course, I have no hope of 
prevailing ; but, with those who adopt another view, 
I may hope the argument wil] have weight. Those 
who believe that revealed truth, as it came from 
God, has in it fixed elements; that Christianity 
has a settled and uncha,ngeable base ; that Grod 
has spoken all His mind concerning the way of 
salvation, and distinctly intimated His design to 
''add no more f and that fche faith of the Church 
should ever answer to its divine Archetypes, "as 
in water face answereth to face ;" — those who be- 
lieve that the Church's progress and development 
should be from grace to grace, and from faith ta 
faith, — not by changing one grace for another, or 
an old faith for a new, but by carrying every grace 
to its highest attainable perfection, and by devel- 
oping from the one faith of the Bible its richest 
fruits in the holy civilization of the individual and 
of society ; — those who hold that we should seek — 
not for repeated changes of faith and doctrine, but 



28o THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

— for a better practical as well as intellectual ap- 
prehension of the one immutable faith and doctrine 
of God's holy Word ; those who regard the Church 
— ^not as a subject upon which this world's spirit of 
curiosity and love of novelty may make their ex- 
periments, but — as Grod's instrument for operating 
on this world in the blessed work of reclaiming it 
unto a just allegiance to its Eternal King ; — those 
who thus believe and hold will, I apprehend, feel 
a peculiar force in the view which I have taken, 
and realize somewhat of its weight in deciding the 
question upon the comparative value of the two 
great forms of public worship in the Church. The 
Scriptural and edifying character of a Liturgy be- 
ing secured, nothing further is essentially needed, 
save a faithful preaching of " Jesus Christ and Him 
crucified," and the full effusion, promised to such 
preaching, of the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, 
in order to bring into iho^ Church and to perpetu- 
ate her highest life and her holiest efficiency ; — 
a life serene as it would be enduring ; and an 
efficiency blessed as it would be powerful. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SCHISM. 

WE are still engaged in treating of the well- 
being of the Churcli. The Church is the 
Body of Christ. As true, holy and Catholic, it is 
His spiritual, or mystical Body. As developed 
under needful forms, it is His visible Body ; so 
called from analogy and from the serving of the 
outward to the inward. 

The visible Church, of which we are now treat- 
ing, has its being and its WELL-being. In its being, 
it comprehends essentials only ; in its well-being, 
it comprehends with these essentials what is requi- 
site to their best condition. Those essentials are — 
Christ, the Spirit, and the body of members under 
the true Gospel and Sacraments. What is requi- 
site to their best condition is — the ''setting of all 
the members in the Body," each in his proper 
place, the higher and the lower, the ministry and 
the people ; so that none shall be wanting and none 
dislocated ; all the parts put rightly together, and 
all sustaining, helping, and perfecting all in com- 

(381) 



282 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

fort, growth and action. This is the visible Church 
in its well-being ; in its best health as well as in 
its essential life. 

This distinction between the being and the well- 
being of the Church, between the Church itself and 
the ministry of the Church, is, as I have before 
remarked, all-important. The visible Church is 
the whole outward Body of Christ. The ministry 
is but a service of members " set in the Church" to 
aid in promoting its best health and action. The 
Church may have this ministry, perfect or imper- 
fect ; or, so far as the human hand of ordination is 
concerned, it may, by possibility, have no ministry 
at all ; and according as it is in one or another of 
these conditions, it will realize more or less per- 
fectly its true welfare ; but, in its worst condition, 
so long as it has Christ, and those who profess the 
true faith of Christ, it will be still — the Church, 
the Church of Christ visible in all the earth. This 
distinction between its being and its well-being, is 
important in settling the question of the true com- 
prehension of the visible Church. 

Of the ministry of this Church I have already 
spoken. For the fullness of this ministry, two 
things are to be regarded as requisite— the inward 
gift and the outward commission. The inward gift 
is always and immediately from the Holy Spirit to 
the ministering man. Its bestowment needs no 



SCHISM. 283 

human hand. No human hand conveys it. It is 
indispensable in constituting the true minister of 
Christ. It never fails to reach him to whom it is 
sent. It never falls by chance on the wrong head. 
With the outward commission it is somewhat dif- 
ferent. This came originally from Christ ; but 
mediately, it has passed through the hands of His 
first Apostles, and of those to whom they commit- 
ted it ; and coming thus through human hands, and 
amid human fallibilities, it is not always accompa- 
nied by the necessary inward gift. The outward 
commission often falls on the wrong head. Never- 
theless, it is Christ's commission in its external 
sign ; and though many bear it who ought not, yet 
none bear it rightly but such as bear it lawfully. 
As it has been committed to the Apostles' hands, 
it should, as to general practice, be transmitted 
according to the Apostles' rule. There are, in- 
deed, those who deny the necessity of any external 
commission to the ministry, and who claim that the 
internal gift is common to all true Christians ; or 
rather, that all on whom it is conferred may and 
should, even without any outward commission, per- 
form all ministerial acts whenever and wherever 
they list. With such theorists, however, the pres- 
ent argument has no concern. It is addressed to 
all who, like ourselves, admit the necessity of the 
outward commission, as well as of the inward 



284 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

gift, in order to the fullness of the Christian min- 
istry. 

In a former Lecture, I professed my faith in the 
following points, viz : that, in transmitting this 
outward commission, the Apostles, for order's sake 
and discipline, distributed it over a ministry of 
three grades ; that thus Episcopacy became every 
where, from the Apostles' time, the actual form of 
the Christian ministry ; that thus, though not of 
the essence of the Church, yet virtually it hath the 
approval of Christ, and that, therefore, voluntarily 
and needlessly to abandon it is rashly to incur the 
hazard, and insure the fact, of the fearful evils of 
schism. 

Schism may be defined as the opposite of true 
Church harmony. It is opposed to the well-being 
of the Church. Hence, in treating of this well- 
being, it becomes desirable to know what is meant 
by this true harmony and what by schism, as a 
violation of this harmony. This, then, is the topic 
on which I now enter — Church harmony. What 
is it ? By what is it violated ? What are the 
evils of its violation ? And how may these evils 
best be cured ? We take up these questions in 
their order. 

1. What is the true harmony of the Church ? 

In the abstract, harmony is a due agreement 
between all the parts of any whole. In the Church, 



SCHISM. 285 

perfect harmonv is a perfect agreement of all its 
parts in the one whole of Christ's Body. In this 
sense, harmony is an attribute of none but the 
spiritual Church, and even there can be developed 
in its perfection no where but in Heaven. In the 
visible Church on earth, harmony may be defined 
as an agreement of all the parts, so far, at least, 
as to avoid all open, organized breach of Christian 
love and of ecclesiastical order. There may, in- 
deed, be among the different parts of the Church 
visible, a stinted measure of Christian love, and 
a feeble realization of ecclesiastical order, consist- 
ently with what may be called the general har- 
mony of the whole. But, when the agreement of 
the parts is disturbed by an open, organized breach 
of Christian love and of ecclesiastical order, there 
Church harmony is lost. The parts are in discord, 
— not merely by a partial lack of Christian love, 
and a feeble realization of ecclesiastical order, but — 
by a positive violation of both. And this suggests 
the answer to our second question. 

2. By what is the harmony of the Church vio- 
lated ? 

I reply : It is violated by the open, deliberate, 
needless act of a body of professed Christians, 
banding themselves into a separate organization 
as a visible Church. In other words, it is violated 
by SCHISM. In this respect, among others, schism 



286 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

differs from heresy. Heresy may be the sin of 
an individual. Schism requires the combined act 
of a greater or less number of individuals. A 
single person, unconnected with others in his pecu- 
liar course, can scarcely be called a schismatic, or 
said to be guilty of schism. But, when he gathers 
other persons around him, and proceeds, deliber- 
ately and without necessity, to organize a separate 
Church, in violation of the love and order of the 
whole Body, then each individual in that organiza- 
tion, as well as the organization itself, becomes a 
schismatic. There schism exists. 

On this point we need clear ideas. Bad as the 
evil of schism may be, it embarrasses all inquiry 
to make it worse than it is. Some write and speak 
as if they thought that schism cuts off from the 
Body of Christ, and leaves the excluded part to 
die, to perish, as something utterly out of the 
Church. None, indeed, would say that every in- 
dividual, involved in schism, is necessarily left to 
perish everlastingly. They mean no more than 
this : that the mass of individuals, thus involved, 
is actually left to perish ecclesiastically, as some- 
thing no longer in, or of, the Church. This idea 
of schism sometimes comes out iu print. Even 
Chillingworth, in his immortal work, writes so as, 
on the whole, to leave the impression that if cer- 
tain ancient and modern Churches, existing separ- 



SCHISM, 287 

ately from that of Eome, could be shown to be 
actually and really in a state of schism, it would 
be tantamount to a confession that they thereby 
ceased to belong, as parts, to the one visible Church 
Catholic. It seems to me that his great argument 
amounts mainly to this, that those separate Churches 
were and are parts of the one Catholic Church, be- 
cause they were not, and are not in a state of schism. 
That those Churches were not, and are not all in 
a state of schism we rejoice to believe. Still, 
there has been and there is, such a thing as schism, 
and it is well for us to know clearly what it is. 
The idea that schism cuts off from the Church, 
though it sometimes comes out in print, yet, among 
us, is rather, in general, the practical inference of 
unthinking minds from the extravagant colors in 
which their teachers are in the habit of painting 
the sin of schism. But, in whatever shape it 
comes, it is a false idea. Schism separates not 
from the Church. To see the truth of this, let 
us look at the thing itself. What is schism ? In 
what are we to find its essence ? 

If possible, this question must be settled by 
reference to the Scriptures, and not by a search 
among the doctors of any age, especially not 
among those who leave the Scriptures out of view. 
Looking, then, at the Scriptures, I think we shall 
see that schism is — not a loss of Church essence, 



288 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

but — a breach upon Churcli love ; not a severance 
from the unity of the Church, but a violation of the 
order of the Church. 

(1.) I refer, first, to 1 Cor. 12 : 25. '' That there 
should be no schism in the body." Schism, then, 
exists "in the body," instead of cutting off from 
the body j in the Church, instead of putting out of 
the Church. And what this thiug in the body 
is, which Christians are to avoid, we may learn 
from what follows the words just cited: "That 
there should be no schism in the body ; but, that 
the members should have the same care, one for 
another. And whether one member suffer, all the 
members suffer with it ; or one member be honored, 
all the members rejoice with it." Schism, then, is 
the opposite of this mutual care, this loving sympa- 
thy, of all the members for and with each other. 
It is a non-intercourse, a lack of mutual care, a loss 
of loving sympathy, among the members of the 
same body. It is, as I have said, a breach upon 
the Church's love, a disturbance of the Church's 
harmony. As such, it is in and of the Church 
itself And this is one of its saddest features. It 
is in the Church, whose highest law should be love ; 
it is among brethren, between whom all should be 
harmony. In the Church, ' ' if one member suffer" 
by persecution, or otherwise, "all the members 
should suffer with it," or there is a breach of love : 



SCHISM. 289 

''or if one member be honored," by promotion to 
higher office, or other distinction, "all the members 
should rejoice with it," or there is a violation of 
harmony. 

This is the essence of schism : and all that can 
be wanting to make it a fact, cognizable in ecclesi- 
astical discipline, is, that this spirit of the evil 
should embody itself in overt organization, as a 
separate sect in the Church. Thd spirit of the evil 
is bad enough as a breach of love and a violation 
of harmony ; but by organization it becomes an 
organized sin. I speak, now, of ecclesiastical or- 
ganizations, properly so called, the formation of 
separate Churches ; and not of social organizations, 
the formation of societies for allowable objects in 
the same Church. Schism becomes a breach of 
Church love, and a violation of Church harmony, 
as a cognizable fact, by the voluntary and needless 
formation of separate Churches ; while yet, the act 
leaves these separate Churches still parts of the 
one visible Church Catholic. It is thus that schism 
is "in the body," and that, by schism, no part is 
cut off from the body. To illustrate this view, let 
us take a wider survey of Scripture, as bearing on 
this point. 

(2.) Matt. 27 : 51. Here the word is in its ver- 
bal form. At the Crucifixion, " the veil of the 
Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bot- 
19 



290 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

torn." That veil was in a state of physical schism. 
It was "rent in twain." Or, to make the phrase 
more Greek, it was "schismed." And yet by 
that fact, neither of the parts ceased to belong to 
the one veil. It was still one veil, though in two 
parts ; and these two parts were capable of being 
closely reunited. 

(3.) Mark 1 : 10. Here also the word is in its 
verbal form. At the baptismal scene, Jesus, " com- 
ing up from the water, saw the heavens opened ;" 
literally, " schismed ;" rent, like the torn curtain. 
And yet there were not two heavens. It was but 
the one heavens ; schismed for a moment, and in a 
moment closed again in one ; and not even for that 
moment, putting either part out of heaven. 

(4.) Matt. 9 : 16. In this passage the word is in 
its substantive form. '' No man putteth a piece of 
new cloth unto an old garment : for that which is 
put in to fill it up, taketh from the garment, and 
the rent is made worse." Literally, " the schism 
is made worse." And yet, at the worst, it is but 
a schism in a garment. It is not a casting off of a 
part, so that it ceases to be a part, of the garment. 
The garment may be mended by skilfully sewing 
the parts together. 

(5.) John 7v43; 9:16; and 10:19. These 
passage? come nearer our subject. On several 
occasions, Christ and His Discourses had set the 



SCHISM. 291 

Jews at fierce reasonings among themselves. Once, 
they differed about tie place of Christ's birth ; and 
then it is said, " there was a *di vision," schism, 
"■ among the people because of Him." Again, they 
differed about the morality of His healing on the 
Sabbath day ; and then again it is said, '' there 
was a division," schism, "among them." And 
still again, they differed about His Discourse on 
the sheepfold, and His laying down His life for the 
sheep ; and still again it is said, ' ' There was a 
division, therefore, again," another schism, "among 
the Jews for these sayings." And yet, on all these 
occasions, the schism was among the Jews ; neither 
party was cut off from the other, or from the Jew- 
ish body at large. Their harmony of opinion was 
broken ; and perhaps their bond of love was for 
the moment injured by their hot disputings ; but 
neither party ceased to be Jews, or to belong to 
the great Jewish commonwealth. 

(6.) 1 Cor. 1 : 10 ; 1 Cor. 11 : 18. These pas- 
sages come still nearer our subject. In the former, 
St. Paul beseeches his Corinthian "brethren, by 
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they all 
speak the same thing ; that there be no divisions,'' 
schisms, " among them ; but that they be perfectly 
joined together in the same mind and in the same 
judgment." And in the latter, he says : "I hear 
that there be divisions," schisms, "among you." 



292 THE LlVma TEMPLE, 

Here, the meaning of the word is quite manifest. 
The Apostle was addressing a part of the Church, 
which was full of the seeds of schism, and of schism 
of the worst kind ; schism right under the eye of 
an Apostle, and in the young heart itself of the 
Church. He was rebuking those who had already 
begun to set up, some for Paul, some for Apollos, 
some for Cephas, and some for Christ ; who were 
already getting up a non-intercourse, and losing 
their mutual care and forgetting their loving sym- 
pathy, for and with each other, in their unholy 
jealousy and zeal for building up Paul's party, and 
Apollos's party, and Peter's party, and Christ's 
party ; and striving to see which could make their 
own most popular and most powerful. And yet, 
he addressed them all as ''brethren," and besought 
them all, by the dearest of names, that they would 
heal their incipient schisms, and live in the oneness 
of all-cementing love for the common truth and for 
their common Lord. He spoke of their young 
schisms as being " among them," and not as cutting 
off Paul's party, or Peter's party, from Christ, or 
from His Church, and leaving the part so cut off 
as no longer a portion of the Saviour's Body. He 
treated schism as a thing which was " in the body," 
which belonged to the body, and in which every 
part of the body was most tenderly concerned. It 
was a direful evil, even in its earliest development ; 



SCHISM. 293 

and, so far as his labors and his prayers could go, 
he would not have it in the Church of Christ. 

From this examination of various passages, then, 
we rest with confirmed confidence in our definition 
of schism. It is a rent, a wound, in the visible 
body of our Lord, Christ. It is a breach upon 
Church love, and a rupture of Church harmony. It 
is one of the ways, in which the one Church has 
been divided and made many Churches. Separate 
Churches may, indeed, be formed without schism ; 
but schism is one of the forms of separation. The 
spirit of schism may exist where the fact of schism 
has not become cognizable. It generally arises 
out of too curious disputes about disputable, per- 
haps trifling matters of opinion and judgment ; 
though sometimes out of the heats of personal pre- 
ferences, and party ambitions ; and it ends in organ- 
ized non-intercourse, the jealousies and strifes of 
sects, the internal dissentions of that great Chris- 
tian family, which ought ever to " live in perfect 
love and peace together." 

Such, when brought out into cognizable fact, is 
schism ; a melancholy rent, a sore festering wound, 
in the visible body of Christ. One of its worst 
characteristics is, that it is " in the body ;" and yet 
this worst reveals its best ; it is not fatal to the 
body ; it may be healed. Individuals may, perad- 
venture, perish everlastingly for fomenting the 



294 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

causes and the progress of schism ; but schism 
itself destroyeth not the body of the Church, or the 
separated parts of which it is composed. Those 
melancholy rents in the veil of the outer temple, in 
the garment of the visible body, may, by the deft 
skill of God's true workmen, under the teaching of 
God's good Spirit, be mended so as never more to 
appear. Those deep wounds in Christ's outer flesh 
may, by divine medicaments, be all healed, so that, 
in the outer, as in the inner Church, there shall be 
nought but soundness, a life in every part, a help- 
ing for each from all the members. The schismed 
firmament of the Church's peace may, by the 
realized power of Her Head, be perfectly closed, 
so that nothing shall ever rend, or pass it again ; 
but the dove-like Spirit of God, having entered in 
olden times, shall once more be felt, in its revived 
marvels, dropping silently and everywhere, the 
dews of sweet, gentle, all-baptizing love. Every 
passage, Avhich has been examined, demonstrates, 
or favors, the truth that schism may be healed ; 
and that, therefore, it is and must be, a fact in the 
body, and not a severance from the body. The 
disturbed harmony of the parts may be restored, 
and thus the well-being of the whole made iinally 
complete. 

3. What are the evils of this violation of Church 
harmony ? 



SCHISM. 



295 



As we have seen in what this violation consists, 
we may look at its evils by way of motive to at- 
tempt its cure, and to bless God that it is curable. 

(1.) And first, something of the evils of schism 
will be manifest on considering it as a breach of 
the Church's love. The bond of sacred brother- 
hood broken ; intestine broils, jealousies, divisions, 
oppositions ; love starved and dwarfed, and the un- 
loving spirit nursed to a giant ; and all this among 
a household of members, who have one Gospel, the 
living oracles of truth ; who hold one Head, Christ 
Jesus the Lord ; and who hope to be saved by His 
death from one hell, and to be raised by His lifa to 
one heaven ; here is -^^ text for the greatest sermon 
that man ever preached ! And yet, the text itself 
is, perhaps, greater than any sermon on it that could 
be preached. Some things seem lessened by all at- 
tempts to make their greatness more than self-evi- 
dent. Look at it, then, and mourn ; that broken 
bond of brotherhood in the family of Jesus ! 

(2.) Second : another view of the evils of schism 
presents itself when we regard it as a wound in- 
flicted on the visible Church. The body of Christ 
wounded in the house of its friends ! Which of us 
would like to drag about a wounded, bleeding, al- 
most fainting body ? Who could do his day's work 
well, in such a state, lame, weak, tottering ? Life- 
blood is flowing from the body of Christ. It hath 



296 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

not half its proper strength. It moves feebly and 
slowly. It doth not well transact Christ's day's 
work on the world's great harvest-field. It is sad 
to think of the wonnds in this body of Christ ! 

(3.) Third : we have another view of the evils of 
schism, when we reflect that it feeds infidelity. 
This, indeed, is an indirect effect of schism ; still it 
is certain to follow, as our eyes too often see. The 
mere natural heart loves not to coin, or to pay, 
much money for the Gospel. In a single village, 
one thousand souls feel but lightly the care of one 
true minister of Christ ; but, if divided and called 
to care for three or four, of jarring names, the bur- 
den presses heavily, and the natural heart eases 
itself by stepping out from under that weight, and 
leaving it to press more heavily still on those who 
remain. Thus, in time, many natural hearts, who, 
might otherwise have been reconciled and saved, 
ease themselves by stepping aside and walking in 
none of the ways of the Church. Then steps in 
among them the specious, covert infidel, who 
preaches for nothing, poisons them with his nothing- 
isms, and, at last, gathers and bands them into a 
synagogue of Satan, and trains them in the inex- 
pensive ritual of hell ! Behold the source of much 
of the rampant infidelity of the world and especially 
of our otherwise favored country ! 

(4.) Fourth : a still further view of the evils of 



SCHISM, 297 

schism meets us in the fact, that it throws great ad- 
vantage on the side of religious error and su" 
perstition. Theological error, in the great, over- 
shadowing Babel of the seven-hilled city, flourishes 
while the friends of simple, scriptural truth are 
rent asunder by divisions ; and her superstitions 
grow up in open day, while that truth is so nearly 
hidden amid the dust of sectarian contests. Such 
is the present condition of the Christian world. 
Errors thicken and grow rank under the vast shad- 
ow that shelters them, and superstition, with its 
serried ranks never broken, draws thousands from 
our divided hosts. Men love repose ; and naturally 
feel little horror of either religious error or religi- 
ous darkness. If, therefore, truth shine not clear 
and calm ; if there be always dust and strife and 
separations about it, they indolently seek refuge in 
notions which are quietly false, or sentimentally 
shelter themselves under superstitions which are 
tranquilly dark. The quiet aod the tranquillity 
allure them ; while the falsehood and the darkness 
are not terrifying. False religion imposingly 
draped in the pomps of superstition, is more agree- 
able to the natural heart, than the true, though 
simply robed in the garments of light ; incompara- 
bly more so, when the true is disfigured in gar- 
ments, rent by the hands of division and smeared 
with the blood of contention. If Christians stay 



298 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

not the spirit of their schisms ; if they consent not 
to live together in lov^e, and in the heart of their 
great, common truths ; it is manifest that nothing 
but miracles revived can keep victory from the 
side of error and superstition ; or save the Church 
from being covered once again with the double pall 
of falsehood and of darkness ! 

This is but a glimpse of the evils of schism ; but, 
it is enough for my purpose. Out of these evils God 
doubtless brings some good ; perhaps He will yet 
bring the greatest. Contest and even divisions 
about the truth certainly show that some minds at 
least are alive and earnest in their thoughts about 
it ; and this may be supposed to prognosticate the 
fmal victory of truth. And then, the various di- 
visions in the Church may doubtless be set to guard 
each other, so that none shall hide, corrupt or mu- 
tilate the Gospel. Moreover, they do oft "pro- 
voke one another," if not " to love and good works/' 
at least to zeal and great works. Still, let the wise 
God make what use of them He please, schisms, 
in themselves, are unspeakably evil, and by the 
Bible itself we are taught to seek their cure. 

It is not difficult to see the connection of these 
views of schism not only with the well-being of 
the Church in general, but aho with the ministry 
and government of the Church in particular. If 
Episcopac}' and its mode of government were the 



SCHISM. 299 

models left by the Apostles, and at first every- 
where received in the Church, and if, having such 
an origin, they have thereby Christ's virtual ap- 
proval, then needlessly and voluntarily to abandon 
those models is rashly to incur the hazard of all 
the evils of schism. I say — not that the mere 
lack of Episcopacy and its mode of government 
is, in and of itself, or mdependently of its cause, 
a schism ; but — that the voluntary and needless 
abandonment of those models endangers, nay, in- 
evitably produces, schism. Such a setting up of 
new and diverse models of ministry and govern- 
ment, unavoidably puts as many diverse masses of 
members upon saying again, "I am of Paul, and 
I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ," 
and, out of these contents, it breeds all that I have 
spoken of as mischievous and full of evil. A loss 
of Episcopacy, or of all ministry, so far as the 
ministry comes by the hand of human ordination, 
is not a loss of the Church itself, for the ministry 
is " in the Church," and not the Church in the min- 
istry ; but, Episcopacy having Apostolic origin, 
adherence to it where possible consistently with 
the higher claims of Divine Truth, is not a matter 
of mere expediency ; it is a matter of duty due to 
the cause of peace and order and the Church's rule. 

4. How may the evils of schism best be cured ? 

Upon the importance of this question it will not 



300 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 

be necessary to dwell. Nor will it be necessary 
to go back with the inquiry, who, or what has made 
all our schisms ? We may take these evils as 
facts, and it will be enough to know that they have 
been made by many hands, and with many motives, 
and that a departure from Episcopacy is but one 
among many of this evil's springs ; that, in many, 
if not most, of the schisms which have happened, 
both sides have been more or less in fault ; and 
that, in some cases, the separation has been so far 
justifiable as it has been forced on the separating 
party, not onl}" as the less of two evils, but as the 
only resort this side of a traitorous abandonment 
of truth, of conscience and of Christ. It is enough 
for us to know these things. Our main business is 
with the facts themselves, and not with their causes. 
The facts exist. They are evils. And yet, they 
are curable evils. How may they best be cured ? 
This is the only reasonable question now before 
us, and to this question I reply : 

(1.) These evils are not to be cured by any at- 
tempt to obliterate all the dividing lines which 
have been drawn through the Church. These 
lines are possibly too deep ever to be obliterated 
in this world. These evils must be cured by out- 
living, overcoming and extinguishing the bad spirit 
in which they were engendered, by which they are 
still cherished, and from which they draw their 



SCHISM. 



301 



chief power for mischief In the view which the 
Bible gives of schism, as a rent, a wound, in that 
Body of Christ, which is the Church, it is plain 
that, if we hope for a cure of its evils, we must 
cease to regard and speak of Non-Episcopal com- 
munions as not belonging to the visible Church. 
It is not by pronouncing this decision over them 
that these deep-seated evils are to be cured. This 
decision, however fond some may be of uttering it, 
is unfounded, and does but embitter those whom 
we ought to win. They are not out of the Church. 
The very schisms between them and us are in the 
Church. They are but wounds in this visible Body 
of our Redeemer, and the spirit in which some 
treat these wounds, does but inflame them, and 
make them bleed more profusely. We must quit 
this policy, or consent to see the spirit, as well as 
name of schism, indelible ! In looking at the visi- 
ble Body of Christ, all wounded and weakened as 
it is, some act as if they thought its cure were to 
be effected by continually thrusting into its wounds 
the rough and rusty probes of their exclusive and 
excluding claims. Manifestly this is a fatal course. 
It can but aggravate the evil and bring on all but 
death ! 

(2.) Were I required to prescribe a remedy, I 
should confess my inability to do anything beyond 
the following brief directions. If these wounds 



302 



THE LIVING TEMPLE, 



are to be probed at all, let it be with the Spirit's 
soft and cleansing ray of Life. For the rest, let 
a mollifying preparation of kind offices and peace- 
ful deeds be laid on, to remove all inflammation, 
and to induce a healing state. Then, lay across 
the wounds as many as possible of the adhesive 
bands of love ; draw the parts gently but closely 
together, and leave the inward, healing life of the 
Spieit to perfect the blessed work. Then the still 
remaining scar-lines from the name of schism 
would not be disiiguringly deep, while the poison 
virulence from the heart of schism would all be 
gone ; the Body of Christ whole and sound again ; 
its many parts and many members, bound in liv- 
ing harmony, each helping each, and all made one 
in perfect, generous, holy sympathy. God send 
His Spirit from on high to speed this divine re- 
covery of His Church ! 

This mode of cure recommends no indifference 
to important distinctive truths and principles, even 
though they be not fundamental ; no blending of 
other outward institutions with our own, and no 
breaking down of our own by way of showing our 
respect for those of others. It means simply this : 
that every part of the Church should freely ac- 
knowledge that all the other parts belong, as really 
as itself, to the visible Body of Christ : that each 
should then fill its providentially assigned lot with 



SCHISM. 303 

peacefully and toilMly active love ; and that ail, 
with consenting prayer to God, should seek, in its 
fullness, '' the residue of the Spirit," and labor to 
"grow up into Christ in all things which is the 
Head." This, it may be believed, is God's way 
of healing the wounds of His Church ; and, in this 
way alone, we may safely assume, can ** the whole 
Body, fitly joined together and compacted by that 
which every joint supplieth, make, in the measure 
of every single part, an increase of the Body unto 
the edifying of itself in Love." 

This gracious consummation the Writer may 
never live to see ; but it is not a chimera — a thing 
to be talked of, but not hoped for. It is God's 
purposed blessing to His Church. It waits to de- 
scend. And we may labor, and should seek to 
hasten or to realize its down-coming. In doing so, 
we are drawing in a line with all God's plans and 
influences, and not at cross-purposes with both His 
Gospel and His Spirit. In all main, essential 
truths, all Christians may, as the Apostle expresses 
the idea in a passage already quoted, '' Speak the 
same thing, and be perfectly joined together in the 
same mind and in the same judgment." Perfect 
uniformity of opinion in all things, especially in 
all things touching outward institutes, was never 
intended of God, and can never be enforced or 
secured by man. The great, vital sun-truths of 



304 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

the Gospel, these are the only ones that can be 
made to shine, in the main, on all minds alike ; 
and it is by feeling the shining of these alone, 
made quickening by the Holy One, that all Chris- 
tians can be melted into the oneness of love, made 
fruitful in the effects of Truth, and sped on their 
way to Heaven amid all the blessings of peace. 



CHAPTER V. 

UNITY. 

OXE of the most universal definitions of tlie 
Church, whether in its inward and spiritual, 
or in its outward and visible being, is that given 
by the Apostle Paul, when he calls it "Many 
members, yet but one body." 

In the last Chapter, I spoke of the harmony of 
the Church, and of schism as a fact, existing in the 
Church, and sadly disturbing that harmony. It 
would not be right to dismiss the consideration of 
the well-being of the Church without speaking of 
UNITY also, as a blessed and binding fact, co-exist- 
ing in the Church, and incapable of being destroy- 
ed by even so bad a thing as heresy. Unity is as 
easily distinguishable from harmony as heresy is 
from schism. Harmony, as a due agreement of 
parts, may be disturbed ; but unity, as the consis- 
tence of a whole, cannot be destroyed. Schism 
may disturb the harmony which ought to reign 
among the parts of the Church ; but heresy cuts off 
from the Church, so that the excluded member 
20 (305) 



3o6 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

ceases to belong to it, leaving the unity of tLe 
Church untouched, just as we may cut off a dead 
limb from a tree and yet leave the unity of that 
tree unharmed. A thing which is one, cannot, at 
the same time and in the same sense, be two. 
Unity is involved in the very idea of the Church. 
Locally, the Church of Christ is distributed into 
many Churches ; yet, really, Christ hath but one 
Church : " Many members," or parts, " yet but one 
body.'' In His great intercessory prayer, Christ 
prayed for this unity, when He asked for His disci- 
ples, in all places and through all time, that they 
all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in me and I 
in Thee, that they also may be one in us." That 
prayer has never returned into His bosom void. It 
went up to be answered, not denied ; and it has 
been answered, and to the end shall continue unde- 
nied. This unity belongs to the whole subject, the 
true comprehension of the Church. In this com- 
prehension the Church necessarily includes her 
own unity. 

But, what is this unity ? This is one of the great 
questions of our age. And it is a question, upon 
which, as it seems to me, some discussions bring 
darkness rather than light. I pray God that some 
one may bring it, if not into perfect light, at least 
out of the thick darkness. If the present effort 
-should contribute even a little towards such a re- 



UNITY. 307 

suit, the Author will not have labored wholly in 
vain. 

Unity, then, belongs to the Church, both as in- 
ward and spiritual, and as outward and visible. 

1. It belongs to the spiritual Church ; that true 
and holy Church Catholic of which I have said so 
much. And this, we may believe, is, in its highest, 
fullest sense, the Unity for which Christ prayed on 
the occasion, to which reference has already been 
made. It is that unity which, in the one living 
body, the one '' communion of saints,^' binds every 
true believer to Christ, the Divine Head, by the 
bond of one true scriptural faith ; a faith that shows 
its vitalizing life in one holy, universal love. This 
blessed unity can never be broken. It lies above 
the reach, and therefore beyond the touch, of 
earth's disturbing causes. In its very essence, 
this unity is indestructible. In the spiritual bond, 
by which it unites the soul to the Saviour, and the 
Christian to his brother Christian, it is as intangi- 
ble to the hand of outward events as the soul her- 
self is to the hand of death. It is out of the reach 
of all such disturbing causes. It is linked with the 
life, that is ''hid with Christ in God." This unity 
is like the one wide-starred heaven, above the 
clouds and storms of earth. Get above these mun- 
dane elements, and what do we see? The one 
vast ether, thick studded with separate star-worlds, 



3o8 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

looking down, inlhe blendings of one, sweet, noise- 
less, and most pure brightness, upon our dark 
state ; that one, shoreless, upper deep, lying calm, 
silent, moveless, unbroken, above the earth, its 
clouds and its storms. The winds, and lightnings, 
and thunders, and volcanic fires, and earthquake 
throes, which appal our senses, may, at times, agi- 
tate the airy shallows below that high, blue ether ; 
but they have no power to roll up and invade that 
one eternal calm of heaven-light, in which it lies ! 
Great emblem of the Unity of Christ's " One holy 
Catholic Church:'' ''many members yet but One 
Body ;" many lights in but One heaven ; a realm of 
life, whose clear depths penetrate heavenward unto 
God, and whose earthward aspect can never be 
more than superficially disturbed by the mistakes, 
and misunderstandings and consequent unharmon- 
ies of true Christian brethren ! 

This Unity, because thus spiritual, is not, there- 
fore, unreal. Every true believer lives in it daily, 
and daily enjoys its verity. Ask him whether the 
controversies, agitations and schisms, which make 
earth so unquiet, ever break or touch the bond 
which binds him to Christ, or the tie which ties 
him to any known brother in Christ? And he 
will answer : " Thank God, this is a thing which 
no hand can reach but God's hand, and which His 
hand never reaches but to strengthen and to per- 



UNITY. 309 

feet." "Wherever, and to whomsoever, among the 
great company of the faithful, that question is 
asked, this will be the answer ; and in this answer 
comes a living demonstration of the truth that 
Christ's great prayer went up to be answered, 
has been answered, and shall be heard and an- 
swered ever ; " that they all may be one, as Thou, 
Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they also 
may be one in us." 

Upon this Unity, however, after what has already 
been said of that Holy Church, in which it resides, 
it is not my purpose to dwell. The difficulty of 
this part of the subject lies elsewhere, as we shall 
see when I come to illustrate the second re- 
mark. 

2. Unity, then, belongs to even the visible 
Church. This unity, however, bears but an an- 
alogy with that of which I have just spoken. That 
it exists we may firmly hold. Christ's prayer has 
been answered to even His visible Church. This 
Church, too. though it consist, emphatically, of 
" many members," is " yet but One Body." To 
see the truth of this, it becomes necessary to ex- 
plain in what this visible unity does not consist, 
and then to state in what it does consist. 

I. Tn what the Unity of the visible Church does 
not consist. 



310 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

(1.) It does not consist, and was never designed 
to consist, in the subjection of all the parts, or 
members, to one temporal head. 

The Romanist's plea for unity, here denied, is 
but one great, baseless assumption. Even if the 
fiction of St. Peter's primacy in the college of the 
Apostles could be converted into a fact, it would 
make nothing towards the conclusion that the unity 
of the visible Church comes out in acknowledging 
him, or any other human being, as temporal head 
of that Church. This Church is a Body, and as a 
Body it has but one head, in heaven or on earth. 
It is not a two- Headed Body, with one Head in 
Heaven and the other on earth. The Apostles 
have eminence among the members of the Body ; 
but they are themselves in the Church, only be- 
cause they are members, " set in the Body/' and, 
with all the other members, similarly "set," con- 
stitute one whole, united to its one Head, which 
Head is Christ. If, therefore, there were such a 
thing as a primate among the Apostles, this would 
not constitute him temporal head of the Church, 
but onl}" chief of the Apostles. Nor would it make 
the unity of the Church to consist in being united 
to him ; for the members of the Bod}^ Ecclesias- 
tical are no more united to the Apostolic eye than 
they are to the plebeian foot. Its unity consists in 
this, that it is, in all its members, one Body, under 



UNITY. 311 

one Head, Christ. The first Christians, indeed, 
"continued in the Apostles' doctrine and fellow- 
ship," and so must all Christians. To reject the 
Apostles' '' doctrine " is to reject the whole G-ospel, 
and to renounce their " fellowship " is to renounce 
" the communion of saints ;" and he who does 
either the one or the other of these is no Christian, 
and therefore not in the Church. But we may 
''continue in the Apostles' doctrine," and in their 
"fellowship," too, without acknowledging any one 
of them, or any alleged successor of that one, as 
temporal head of the Church, even on the supposi- 
tion that that one was Primate over the rest. But 
there was no such Primate. The Apostles were 
official equals. Whatever may have been their 
personal inequalities, officially they were on an 
equality. The theory, therefore, of a temporal 
head of the Church is based on a double fallacy ; 
and the Romanist's idea of unity is a double fiction. 
Such a visible unity never has been and never will 
be. The theory on which it is based is irreconcilable 
with fact no less than with argument. The visible 
Church never has acknowledged one temporal head, 
and it never will. Nearly two thousand years of 
Christian history have put the realization of the 
idea among impossibilities. Once, indeed, such an 
external unity came near being realized ; but the 
nearer it came, the more corrupt and dead grew 



312 TUB LIVING TE2IPLE. 

the Church ; until, at length, it became a great 
kingdom of this world, whose manifested life was 
but intense spiritual death ! Could such a unity be 
ever effected, could Rome's dream be ever made a 
reality, permanently and over all the earth, analogy 
suggests the fear that it would virtually give '' the 
god of this world " a life-lease of its kingdoms in 
Christ's name. The worst evils that have ever 
fallen on the temporal state of the Church, have 
resulted from Rome's attempts to force an external 
unity in the form of an universal submission to her 
one temporal head. Blood and fire and earth-em- 
broiling contests have certified to the ages that the 
Church was not made for such submission. Even 
Christianized humanity, as the best visible hand of 
God, fights against such a unity, and hath broken 
its begun fabric in pieces, like a potter's vessel, 
whereof the sherds cannot be put together. 

(2.) The Unity of the visible Church does not 
consist in subjection to one universal form of Church 
government and ecclesiastical law as administered 
by men. 

The only supreme government in the Church is 
Christ's, and the only supreme law is His Word. 
All other government and law are not of the 
Church's being, but only of her greater or less 
well-being. They may, therefore, be modified or 
changed, without touching the essential unity of 



UNITY. 313 

the Church. As a nation may have different forms 
of government in different ages, or different forms 
at the same time over its different parts, and yet 
be all the while one nation, by the acknowledg- 
ment, in all its parts, of one supreme authority ; 
so also is it in the Church. The central and 
supreme authority of Christ and His Word pre- 
serves its unity, notwithstanding the diversity in 
the forms of subordinate government which pre- 
vail. Change of government may amount to revolu- 
tion, and revolution may be fraught with great 
evils ; but they destroy not the Body, whether 
secular or religious, civil or ecclesiastical, in which 
they occur. It remains true, therefore, that what 
constitutes the Church one, what makes its nnity, 
is not a universal submission to one form of eccle- 
siastical government and law. 

(3.) The unity of the visible Church does not 
consist in universal submission to one form of the 
Christian ministry. 

The ministry itself, as we have seen, is not of 
the essence, but only of ih^ fullness and order of 
the Church ; even as the eye, ih^ ear, and the 
hand are not essential to the being,' but only to the 
completeness and perfectness of the human body. 
The universal prevalence, therefore, of one form 
of the ministry cannot be that in which the unity 
of the visible Church consists. It cannot be that 



314 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

which constitutes this Church ''One Body." It 
may be requisite, or desirable, to the harmony and 
the best welfare of this Body ; to that state in 
which there shall be '' no schism in the Body j but 
not to the existence of the Body itself. The Body 
may really be one, though in a verj^ wounded and 
a very weakened state. Rejection of what we 
believe to have been the Apostolic model of the 
Christian ministry may possibly prove the severest 
wound which the visible body of Christ can receive 
compatibly with its continuance in life ; and yet, 
that such a wound may be received, compatibly 
with such continuance, we see by what many re- 
gard as sad, melancholy experience. The Protes- 
tant Reformation on the continent of Europe, one 
of the greatest facts in the history of the Church 
since the Apostles' days, would be an insoluble 
enigma on the contrary supposition. By what 
may be considered an unavoidable necessity, in 
the order of God's sovereign Providence, that 
Reformation resulted, among other things, in a 
local loss of the Episcopacy from the ministry. 
To say that God was concerned, not merely in 
permitting, but in producing that Reformation ; 
that He produced it by the agencies of old sent 
down to the earth — His Holy Spirit and His Holy 
Word ; and that He did it to give a new era to the 
whole Church by reviving her almost extinct spirit- 



UNITY. 



315 



ual life, and by giviug action to causes which may 
and doubtless must finally throw off all error and 
all superstition from the heritage of Christ ; to say 
all this is but to assert what is as plain as that Grod 
had an agency in creating the worlds, or that He 
still has an agency in upholding and governing the 
worlds. That Reformation was God's own work 
upon His own Church, and with His own instru- 
mentalities ; as much His own work as was the 
first gathering of the Church ; and as truly with 
His own instrumentalities as when He wrought 
amid primitive '' signs and wonders." And yet, 
as I have said, that Reformation resulted, among 
other things, in a local loss of the Episcopacy from 
the Christian ministry ; and it may result in the 
loss of some portions of Protestantism even from 
the visible Church. That is, some portions of 
Protestantism may yet go so far, if they have not 
already gone so far, as to reject the whole '' doc- 
trine and fellowship " both of the Apostles and of 
Christ ; and thus to die off from the Church, as a 
branch sometimes dies and drops from the tree on 
which it grew. But, as a tree may still live, and 
even grow all the more beautifully, symmetri- 
cally and luxuriantly, after the dead branch has 
dropped and mouldered in the soil beneath ; so 
would it then prove with the live trunk and 
branches of the great Continental Reform. Non- 



3i6 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

Episcopal Protestantism is already spreading over 
the wide earth, and carrying with it some of the 
best life and activities of Christ, His Spirit and 
His Word ; it is part of the one visible Church 
and body of Christ ; and it furnishes a living 
proof that the Oneness, the Unity of this Church 
cannot consist in a universal subordination of all 
the members to one form of the Christian ministry. 
The loss of Episcopacy we consider a great loss ; 
for what purpose permitted we pretend not to 
divine ; but to say that it has cast Non-Episcopal 
Protestantism out of the visible Church, is to be a 
bold man in charging God, and in overstepping our 
own highest standards. 

II. In what the unity of the visible Church does 
consist. 

Having thuG seen in what the Unity of the visi- 
ble Church does not consist, we are now ready for 
the question, in what, then, does this Unity consist? 
And to this question I reply : 

The Unity of the visible Church consists in its 
PROFESSED subjection to Christ, the One Divine 
PIead of this Church. It is thus the one universal 
body, or company, of Christ's professed followers 
in all the earth. The unity of the visible Church 
lies in the outward profession and maintenance, 
every where, of that which really constitutes the 



UNITY. 317 

unity of the true, spiritual and holy Church Cath- 
olic. The unity of this spiritual Church lies, as 
we have seen, in truly having "one Lord, one 
faith, ONE baptism:" "one Loed," Christ Jesus, 
the living Head ; " one faith," the whole revealed 
word, believed with the heart, the vital bond which 
unites every believer with that Head; and "one 
BAPTISM," the baptism of the Holy Ghost, that 
which puts the breathing of a divine life into the 
whole body so constituted and so united. The 
unity of the true spiritual Church lies in really 
having these divine things. The unity of the visi- 
ble Church lies in outwardly professing these 
things, though, in reality, not all the members have 
them. The visible Church is one body, because it 
every where professes the " one Lord, one faith, 
and one baptism," without which there is no Church, 
either spiritual or visible. Whoever, as an indi- 
vidual, or as an organized community, utterly casts 
off this "one Lord, one faith, and one baptism," is 
in HERESY ; and thereby is cut off from even the 
visible Church : and whoever, as an individual, or 
as an organized community, professes this "one 
Lord, one faith, and one baptism," is thereby in- 
corporated into this Church, and thus makes a part 
of the ONE visible body of Christ. The spiritual 
Church really has and enjoys these things, and is 
thereby one. The visible Church outwardly pro- 



? THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



Tesses the same things, and is thereby one, though 
some of its members neither enjoy nor have the 
reality which they profess. The Unity of each has 
reference to the same elementary, constituent prin- 
ciples, without which there can be no Church, spir- 
itual or visible. The Unity of the one is divine 
and perfect. The Unity of the other is analogical 
and imperfect. 

With this conception, then, of the oneness of the 
visible Church, it is obvious that many things may 
disturb, and even deeply wound, its harmony, or 
union, without thereby destroying its unity. This 
is the difference between unity and union. ' ' The 
unity and entity of the Church," says Bishop Hall, 
" can no more be divided than itself'^ To destroy 
the unity of the body would be to destroy the body 
itself. But the union of the Church may be broken. 
This is not infrangible. This may be broken with- 
out destrojdng the Church. Unity is that which 
makes a thing one. Unity is that which makes 
several parts agree in one. Union is the harmony 
of parts. In the visible Church, therefore, it is easy 
to see how this union, or harmony, may be broken 
without thereby destroying that Church's unity, or 
oneness. By schism it has been broken, sadly 
broken, until this Church has become like a family, 
agitated by intestine broils. But its unity remains. 
It is still the one, great, visible family of Christ 



umTT, 



319 



scattered over the earth : and, what is more, its 
union also — its broken harmony may yet be re- 
stored. Perhaps, when we consider the passions 
and interests of men, and the mixture of all things 
human in this visible Church, the wonder ought to 
be that its discords have not been greater, rather 
than that they have been so great. 

And now, let us gather up a few things from that 
part of the subject which we have just been discus- 
sing, and from the subject at large. 

(1.) The view which has been taken throws light 
on the question of returning to the unity of the 
Church ; or, as the question should be stated, about 
returning to the union, the harmony, of the Church. 

Christians are not to return to visible unity — or 
rather, let us discard the term, once for all, and 
say they are not to return to visible Unioii^ , under 
one temporal head. There is not and never has 
been such a union ; not even in Apostolic days. 
Nor are they necessarily to return to visible union 
under one form of ecclesiastical government and 
law. Such subordination is not essential to the 
oneness of the body ; and, considering the diversi- 
ties of human character, social condition, and polit- 
ical institutions, in various parts of the world, and 
under various influences of education, we may 
doubtless say, with safety, that such a subordi- 
nation is not desirable to the best welfare of the 



^20 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



Church. Nor, however fervently we, as Episcopa- 
lians, may pray for it, are they necessarily to re- 
turn to visible union under one form of the Chris- 
tian ministry. In the good Providence of God, 
this subordination may, or may not be restored. 
At any rate, this subordination is not likely to be 
hastened by continuing to insist that Non-Episcopal 
organizations do not belong to the visible Church. 
If any thing can retard and j5nally defeat the uni- 
versal readoption of an Episcopal ministry, it is 
likely to be a passionate persistence in such a 
transparent untruth. As men, and even Christian 
men, are constituted, they are not strongly at- 
tracted towards that which perseveringly seeks to 
fortify itself behind a loveless unreality. 

To what, then, are Christians to return ? If not 
to union under one temporal head, nor to union 
under one form of Church government and law, 
nor, necessarily, to union under even one form of 
the Christian ministry, then, to what must they 
return? I reply, in the idea of our ''prayer for 
all conditions of men," they must return to the 
''Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.'' This is 
the union which has been violated. This is the 
union which must be restored. It is necessary to 
the welfare of the Church. Without it, piety will 
remain stinted, and never grow to half its proper 
stature. Without it, prayer will continue weak and 



never grasp half the divine promises. Without it, 
the Church itself will live on, a dwarf, and never 
compass half its destined heritage. The world, in 
its wants, calls for this return to union. The 
Church, in her distractions, calls for it. And God, 
in His Word, calls for it. Aye ! And the three 
shall yet have what they ask. The gracious power 
of God, by His Spirit, shall give it to the world, to 
the Church, to Himself. The old world's jeers at 
the visible Church's broils are beginning to make 
Christians sick with sadness ; and Jesus inspires 
the faith that the healing of this sickness will come 
in the restoration of that sweet harmony, the viola- 
tion of which is so painfully felt. 

The questions. What is the Church ? Where is 
it ? How may I find it ? are often suffered needless- 
ly to disturb the tender conscience. These ques- 
tions are often artfully pressed, as though there 
were a thousand rival claimants to the character of 
the Church, to one only of which it rightfully be- 
longs ; and as though, amid their conflicting claims, 
each individual Christian must decide, or allow 
others to decide for him, which among them all is 
the true Church, the only Church, the Church in 
which alone salvation is to be found. But this, as 
we have viewed the subject, is an utterly false po- 
sition. No tioul, thank God, has such an awful 
question as this to answer. The comparative 
21 



322 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

claims to consideration of different Christian de- 
nominations are far from being unimportant ; but 
they can never grow to such a tremendous weight 
as this ! It is a weight, which, were it fully felt, 
would press unnumbered souls into despair, or into 
a reckless embrace of the most ruinous errors. The 
simple, but all-sufficient direction, for every one, is 
this : find the Bible ; find your own sins ; find 
Christ ; find the Holy ^Spirit ; find the baptism of 
the heart into the life "hid with Christ in God ;" 
and then, confessing your Saviour before men in 
the accessible way of His appointment, you have 
found His Church. His Church covers all Chris- 
tians. You find that Church in finding Christ by a 
faith which " works by love,'' " purifies the heart," 
and "■ overcomes the world." For necessity of sal- 
vation, you need look no further. 

(2.) The question, however, — what is the true 
Apostolic ministry of the Church? is one of a differ- 
ent order. We believe this ministry to have been 
Episcopal. Ignorance, unintentional mistake, edu- 
cation, unavoidable Providences, may render others 
blameless in living without such ministry ; but 
nothing would make us blameless in renouncing it, 
so long as this ministry itself, neither renounces 
Christ and His Gospel, nor imposes on our con- 
sciences terms of communion which are clearly 
•un scriptural. If this ministry should ever assume 



UNITY, 323 

either of these positions, the duty of submission to it 
would be lost in the higher duty of loyalty to Christ 
and His Truth. It is on this ground that our best 
writers have ever justified the separation of the 
European Continental Protestants from the Church 
of Eome, even though, in that separation, they 
were unable to carry with them a scriptural Epis- 
copacy. The ministry was '' set in the body " for its 
health and welfare. Subserving these, it must be 
held. Subverting these it must be renounced ; 
though it be Episcopal in form ; for the body, with 
Christ its Head, is more than any member thereof, 
however eminent in place. If even the eye offend 
incurably, it must be plucked out. 

(3.) The view which has been taken teaches 
another thing. While it is our duty as Protestants, 
to mourn over the evils which rend the harmony 
of the outer Church, and to seek to enter livingly in- 
to the sorrows, with which these evils inspire the 
heart of Christ ; it is also our privilege as Chris- 
tians, to rejoice in the true and holy unity, which 
pervades and binds all Christ's living members in 
His one spiritual Church Catholic ; to cultivate, 
moreover, that " unit}^ of Spirit in the bond of 
peace," which should pervade and unite even His 
outer Church ; and to live, labor and sacrifice, each 
in his proper sphere, to spread the pure Gospel, 
the knowledge of the true Saviour, over all the 



3^24 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

world. In this way, we shall do our best in bring- 
ing again the full mind of Christ upon all his fol- 
lowers ; till, as the light of the sun cometh down 
and maketh a shining garment for the earth, so 
that mind, descending, shall enrobe His Church 
and make even her outer vestments glorious. Al- 
ready *^ is the King's daughter all-glorious within ; 
and it is a cheering thought that we may aid in 
bringing forward the time, when her very ''cloth- 
ing shall be wrought gold ;" shining in the sweet 
harmonies of peace and love and truth. 

(4.) Finally ; all that has been said from begin- 
ning to end of this whole subject, comes to this one 
point, as an enduring lesson to every single soul ; 
the Church, in her best estate, can save no man. 
If any man be ever saved, he will, it is true, be 
saved in the Church, and by the instrumentalities, 
which Christ hath put into her hands for use. Still, 
the Church does not, cannot save him. He is 
saved, and he must be saved, for himself individu- 
ally, by Christ, His Spirit and His Truth ; with as 
much of personal responsibility and watchfulness 
and care, as if he were alone in the world, with 
nothing but Christ His Spirit and His Truth be- 
sides him. One of the grand heresies, which the 
present day has, at times, seemed intent on bring- 
ing back upon Protestantism, is, that, somewhere 
in the abstract being of the Church, there is laid 



umTY. 



325 



up a deposit of spiritual life and grace, wMch she 
has power, of her own will, or by her own activity, 
to dispense ; and that to be a member of the 
Church is, somehow, wittingly or unwittingly, to 
become a sharer in her rich treasure. It is a fatal- 
ly perilous delusion. The Church has just so much 
spiritual life and grace in her, and no more, as her 
members, each for himself alone, draw from Christ, 
the Living Fountain, through the channels, which 
Christ has opened, or which He keeps still hidden 
with Himself. The spiritual life and grace of the 
Church can never be greater, or other, than the 
simple aggregate of what each member thus brings 
into it from- the Fountain-head of all. Happy 
would it be, if every man would remember this 
truth ; if he would carry it with him everywhere, 
sleep under it, wake with it, live in it. The 
Church cannot save us. Jesus Christ must save 
us. Thousands, it must be feared, of the members 
of the visible Church have perished. We shall 
perish, if we never attain to more than reputable 
membership in this Church. 

And now, in dismissing the whole subject of the 
comprehension of the Church, a word, personal to 
the Writer, may perhaps be permitted. 

He is not, then, indifferent to what may be said, 
whether of himself, or of what he has essayed to 
teach. Yet, has he not been governed herein by 



326 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

any refereuce to such notices. He has spoken be- 
cause he felt it his duty to exhibit what he believes 
to be, at all times, and especially at this present, 
very important truths. Those, to whom, in the 
course of a ministry not short, it has been his 
privilege m divers places to preach the Gospel, 
will bear him witness that it has not been his habit 
to dwell with much frequency on the special sub- 
ject of the Church. Ordinarily, '' Christ and Him 
crucified " has been and must ever be, so long as a 
ministry on earth is allowed him, his main theme.. 
The present, however, are no ordinary times. Our 
Church, both in our own, and in our mother Coun- 
try, has had, and, it must be feared, still has, in 
her fold, those who are openly or covertly seeking 
to put out the light of her Protestantism. Under 
such circumstances, every minister, within her pale, 
is bound, in some w^ay, to speak out honestly and 
fully, and to let his fellow Churchmen know where 
he stands, and towards what he is driving. If they 
are to be led away from the Protestant faith of 
their fathers, it is no inore than right that they 
should be led with their eyes open and with their 
own consent. Regardfully of these obligations of 
the clergy and of this right of the people, the Au- 
thor has acted in what he has now, at some length, 
propounded. To his Master and to his conscience 
he could not feel justified in withholding what he has 



UNITY. ^zj 

spoken. Those who have been or may be, to any 
extent, under his influence, if not the Church at 
large, have a right to know his mind on this sub- 
ject. The grave charges, so often urged against 
those who speak as he has spoken, may perhaps, 
justify him in the egotism of saying that he is, by 
conviction as well as in affection, an Episcopalian. 
He was born and nurtured in the Ml discipline of 
the American Episcopal Church. He loves it, and 
doubts not that he shall love it until death. But 
he humbly hopes that, " by the grace of God," he 
bears a still higher designation. He, at least, pro- 
fesses to be a Christian ; and, as such, he can 
never sink, in the mere Churchman, the regards 
which he owes to all who belong to the Saviour of 
us all. He is also, a Protestant ; and, as such, he 
can never look, without feelings of unfeigned regret 
upon every step, which our Protestantism may take 
in retracing its way, even though it should be nn- 
consciously towards the errors, which were renoun- 
ced, before heaven and earth, on the morning of 
the great Eeformation. He wages no personal 
contest. He denies to no man the right of forming 
and of spreading his own jud^^ments on the points 
discussed. He stands on principle ; and claiming the 
same rights, which he allows, on his own principles 
he must stand openly. If others can stand with 
him in the main, he will rejoice ; but, with many 



328 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

or alone, so he stands ; and, with his best prayers 
iind labors for this our Zion upon earth, will hope 
so to stand till called to share the glory of the true 
Zion in heaven. 

Oh the glory of that upper Church ! To all, who 
are named of Christ, be that the home of their 
highest, holiest love. In longings for it let all live ; 
and to the language of one of its sweet, anticipative 
hymns, let all train the daily utterances of their 
hearts : 

" Mother of cities ! o'er thy head 
Bright peace, with healing wings outspread, 

Forevermore shall dwell ; 
Let me, blest seat ! my name behold 
Among thy citizens enrolled. 

And bid the world farewell." 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE CHURCH IN HEAVEN. 



X CLOSED the last Chapter with an allusion to 
-^ the Church in Heaven. In the present, I pro- 
pose no addition to the arguments with which 
this discussion has been concerned. In bringing 
the whole to its final close, my object is, so far as 
may be, to give a holier power to what has been 
said, by carrying the whole subject which has been 
discussed up to that future and finished result, 
wherein all that is imperfect in the Church on 
earth will be swallowed up forever in the perfec- 
tions of THE Church in Heaven. If, in what has 
thus far been said, there have been too much of a 
taint from secular and earthly influences, it will be 
pleasant to the Writer — and he hopes it will be 
no less so to the reader — to close the series with 
something that shall serve to remind both of the 
purities of a better world. 

We are taught by an Apostle, Heb. 9 : 23, that 
there were, under the ancient dispensation, "pat- 
terns of things in the Heavens." Some of these 

(329) 



330 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

" patterns" are enumerated in the Epistle to the 
Hebrews. Thus, the sacrifices and sprinkling of 
blood, observed by the Church under that dispen- 
sation, were '' patterns'' of the one great offering 
and of the true " blood of sprinkling," which Christ, 
our ''High Priest forever," is continually present- 
ing in heaven, lleb. 9 : 24. Thus, too, the most 
holy place in the temple of the ancient Church was 
a " pattern" of the "true" Holy of Holies in heaven 
into which Christ hath entered with that one per- 
fect offering of Himself. Heb. 9 : 8, 12. In heaven 
there is continual Worship, as we learn from the 
visions of him who spake in the Apocalypse. The 
elders, who ''worship Him that liveth forever and 
ever" — "rest not day and night, saying: Holy, 
holy, holy, .Lord God Almighty ; which was, and is, 
and is to come." Eev. 4 : 10 ; 8. Worship on 
earth is one of the acts in which the Church mani- 
fests her life. This worship on high, therefore, 
implies the existence of a Church in heaven. More- 
over, he who had the visions of the Apocalypse 
saw in heaven " the bride, the Lamb's wife ;" Rev. 
21 : 9 ; one of the mystic symbols of the Church in 
her divine Union with Christ her Head ; while the 
Apostle speaks of "The General Assembly and 
Church of the first-born, which are written in 
heaven," as one of the glorious things to which, in 
the anticipations of a faith, clothed with something 



TEE CHURCH IX HE A VEK 3 3 1 

of the ubiquitj' of its Ghostly giver, the true folio vv^- 
ers of Christ are represented as '' coming" even 
while yet lingering within the dark confines of the 
flesh. 

There is, then,- a Chuech in Heaven. It is 
"The General Assembly of the first- 
born." To this Church, indeed, Christians " come" 
even while on earth, with something more present 
than the anticipations of faith. They come to this 
Church on earth, because a part of it is still here. 
And yet, the language of the Apostle is most hap- 
pily descriptive of, and was doubtless intended, in 
its full sense, to describe, that part of this Church 
which is already in heaven ; and it is only when 
the whole shall have been gathered up and glori- 
fied, in that perfect upper world, that our coming 
to it will be finally and fully realized. So again, 
•' Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it 
that He might present it to Himself a glo- 
rious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any 
such thing ; but that it should be holy and without 
blemish." The Church, it is true, is presented to 
Christ on earth ; and it is, even here, "a glorious 
Church ;" still, not yet " without spot, or wrinkle," 
— not yet ''holy and without blemish." This state 
of the Church, and this presentation of the Church 
will never be literally and fully realized, until the 
whole shall have been gathered up into heaven, 



332 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

and the marriage of " the bride, the Lamb's wife" 
shall be celebrated in solemn state, and with heav- 
enly pomp, before the throne of Grod. 
. I repeat, then, there is a Church in Heaven. 
Heaven itself, considered as a state of being and 
relations, and as made up of those who fill that 
state, is a Church. In that Church, Jesus Himself 
is the great Bishop, and "shepherd of souls.'' Its 
MEMBERS are " the first-born," — the choice ones of 
God, — the first and best fruits of His creatures. 
Its BAPTISM is the full affusion of " the Holy Ghost 
and of fire," — the spirit of glowing, heavenly love 
poured abundantly upon all hearts. The "names" 
of its baptized "are written in heaven," on the 
registry of life. And its high sacrament, its eter- 
nal EUCHARIST, is a fcast on more than "Angels' 
food" — the manna of immortality ; a feast — not on 
the PLEDGES but — on the possession of that, as yet 
deep mystery — life everlasting in Christ our 
Head. 

If, then, there be a Church in Heaven, it much 
behoves us to become familiar with its character- 
istics and partakers of its spirit. For, by so doing, 
blessings from the inner — upper — sanctuary shall 
be won and shed down most abundantly, both upon 
ourselves and upon our fellow members in this 
outer, lower congregation — " the Church in the wil- 
derness" of time. 



THE CHURCH m HE A YEN. 3 3 3 

To promote, then, this desired familiarity with 
things so sacred, so divine, let us proceed to enu- 
merate, so far as we may be able to learn them, 
the CHAEACTERisTics of the Church in Heaven. 

1. It is characterized by Union. 

I say union, rather than unity, oecause of the 
two, UNION is the higher and more perfect state. 
There is unity in the v?enseless rock. There is 
union only between parts capable of agreement 
and disagreement. There may be unity where 
union does not, as a greater, include unity as a less. 
This is illustrated in the Church. Here, there may 
be unity, while union is broken ; but there can be 
no UNION which does not include and presuppose 
unity. In the Church perfect union is unity ex- 
alted, GLORIFIED. In the Church, perfect union is 
the intelligent, voluntary agreement and fitting of 
parts, once capable of deliberate sinful disagree- 
ment and discord, but, at last, reconciled into a 
deliberate, holy harmony for eternity. 

On earth, the uniting principle acts feebly and 
inconstantly between the parts of the Church. In 
heaven, it operates powerfully and constantly ; so 
that the very basis of the Church in glory is — 
UNION — a perfectly harmonious condition of the in- 
numerable parts and members of the glorified body. 
There are no schisms in the Celestial Church. The 
members of Christ, there, look not at one another 



334 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



with the sickly eye of prejudice, till brother learns 
to hate his brother. They call not one another by 
odious names there, till at length the very sound 
of some two-edged epithet, wounding the heart 
both of him who utters and of him who receives it, 
stirs to action most unholy tempers. There are no 
rival SECTS in heaven, each striving to build its 
own and to pull down the other's house. In that 
upper Church, are no . Divinma walls, so high as 
to hinder Christians from seeing each other, and 
so thick as to keep them from talking with each 
other. Nor are there any separate streams of 
CHARITY there, kept by artificial dikes from flowing 
into one common channel ; but love, mighty love, 
melts down all barriers, leaves heart open to heart, 
and sends the mingling tide around, till, in one 
vast charity, the harmony becomes divine. Or, to 
take a similitude from the Bible, love, there, is the 
true "bond of perfectness ;" it is a bond never 
broken ; it leaves not a soul out of its sacred zone ; 
and it holds all in blest, eternal union. In the 
upper Church is presented \hQ literal fullness of 
that for which the Saviour prayed: "That they 
ALL may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in me and 
I in Thee, that they also may be one in us." "And 
the glory, which Thou gavest me, I have given 
them ; that they may be one even as we are one : 
I in them and Thou in me ; that they may be made 



THE CHURCH IN HE A VEK 3 3 5 

PERFECT in one." This union is the perfection of 
the heavenly organization, as love is the perfection 
of the heavenly individual. 

2. The Church in Heaven is characterized by 

PURITY. 

I use this term now, not as s^monymous with 
holiness in the children of God ; but as opposed to 
mixture among them of such as belong not to them. 
Pure wheat is the grain, without any mixture of 
tares. Heaven is a pure Church because it con- 
tains no false members ; no hypocrites, or inten- 
tional deceivers of others ; and no formalists, or 
careless deceivers of themselves. All who are ad- 
mitted to membership there are admitted under the 
inspection of the All-seeing Eye ; an Eye that looks 
through all outward forms into all secret motives. 
Membership there is a vital reality. About that 
Vine there are no dead branches, whose only claim 
to be called branches lies in the fact, that they are 
found within the enclosure of the Church Vineyard. 
All there are living branches, grafted into Christ, 
*' the true Yine," and growing out of Him as the 
real ''Tree of Life." In heaven are no "tares" 
among the " wheat ;" for no enemy finds the divine 
Husbandman asleep while he essays to sow them. 
''The Net," which is "let down" from heaven into 
the broad sea of time, gathers not good and bad, 
but good only, on the eternal shores. In heaven 



336 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

it is never said of professing Christians, "They 
went out from us because they were not of us f for 
all there are regenerate in heart as well as in out- 
ward relation ; all are baptized with the Spirit as 
well as with water ; and all, not only sit down at 
His table, but also feast on life with the Living 
Saviour. 

It is impossible fully to comprehend the difference 
between the Church in its best estate on earth, 
and the Church in this state of purity in heaven. 
Here, fellowship is, at the best, but a feebly-burn- 
ing fire ; often it is a fire virtually extinguished 
under the cold reflection that all are not what they 
profess or appear to be. Each true Christian 
knows not who, besides himself, is certainly true ; 
and sometimes he is afraid that even himself may 
be deceived. Hence, what fears and tremblings, 
what doubts and distrusts, what damps and chills 
creep in and trouble Christian fellowship on earth ! 
Blessed indeed this fellowship often is, but when 
most blessed it is full of experiences not half-born, 
and has but here and there something that seems 
like an experience half grown. But in the Heav- 
enly Church how different ! Oh, the clear shining 
of that light in which all is certainty ! in which all 
are known to be what they profess and appear to 
be ! where each first knows himself to be true, and 
then knows all others to be true j where God's seal 



THE CHURCH IN HEA VEK 337 

is upon every one, certifying that, upon unerring 
inspection, every one has been found genuine ; and 
where thus, certainty shines into every heart, and 
out from everj^ heart j and all fear is gone, and all 
tremblings are still, and all doubts are dispelled, 
and all distrusts are banished, and nothing more is 
left to damp or to chill the fellowship of the per- 
fect ! God's Certainty beaming everywhere ; the 
certainty that I am what, to myself and to others, 
I appear to be ; and that all others are what, to 
me, to themselves and to God, they profess to be ! 
Since the first sin was sinned, earth has never 
known what such a fellowship means. In heaven 
that sweetest of mysteries will once more be 
opened. 

3. The Church in Heaven is characterized by 

SANCTITX. 

All the members of that Church are not only 
set apart from common and profane uses, but also 
separated from every form and degree of sin ; not 
only consecrated as " vessels of honor •' but also 
" meet for the Master's use." They have no longer 
anything wrong in their natures. It is true that 
they feel not like angels, who can look up to God 
in the silent consciousness that they have never 
offended Him. Nevertheless, they feel, as even 
angels cannot feel, like redeemed ones, who can 
look up to their Father with the uttered yet unut- 
22 



338 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

terable joy that He has delivered them from all 
their offenses, and made them once more and for- 
ever perfect in His sight. They hear when it is 
said: ''These are they which came out of great 
tribulation, and have washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb." These 
were '' redeemed from among men, being first- 
fruils unto God and the Lamb. In their mouth 
was found no guile, for they are without fault be- 
fore the throne of Grod." To use the Apostle's 
phrase, " In the body of His flesh, through death," 
Christ hath finally " presented " them to the Father 
"holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable in His 
sight." 

Here is another marvel of difference between 
the Church on earth at its best estate, and the 
Church in Heaven at its final glory. As sinners 
here, we can know nothing of the bliss of sinless- 
ness. We can only know the blessedness of pain, 
and struggle, and chastening, with mingled love, 
and tenderness, and faithfulness ; giving us expe- 
rience of alternate defeat and victory, and of deep 
solicitude and hopeful watching over the begin- 
nings and the progress of our sanctification ; the 
whole interspersed with here and there a glimpse, 
a foretaste of something like the coming fullness ; 
but, of absolute sinlessness and perfection, of being 
" holy, unblamable and unreprovable." even in 



THE CHURCH IN HEA VEK , 339 

the sight of God ; not merely unblamed, but " un- 
blamable," not merely unreproved, but " unre- 
provable ;" not only fit for use, but ''fit for the 
Master's use ;" of this state we as yet know no- 
thing. The difference between being holy and 
perfect in intent and endeavor — which is the state 
of all true Christians here — and being sinless and 
spotless in realized fact and effect — which will be 
the state of all the saints in heaven — this differ- 
ence we cannot know until we get among the expe- 
riences of the upper Church ; not till then can we 
know what a mystery of blessedness and glory 
awaits us as flowing from those experiences. I 
MUCH WONDER what will be the feelings of a sinless 
soul among sinless souls, and in the presence of 
God! 

4. The Church in Heaven is characterized by 
light. 

I speak not of the light which visits these poor, 
feeble eyes of flesh, but of the true light, the shin- 
ing of TRUTH, the light of the soul. In heaven 
there is no error, nor any to teach error, concern- 
ing either God or His ways, concerning either man 
or his destiny. There is no ignorance in heaven, 
as growing out of the disuse of the faculties of the 
mind ; nor any mistake, as originating in that 
feebleness, which cannot always use those facul- 
ties ario;ht. These and all other forms of dark- 



340 



THE LIVING TEMPLE. 



ness are dispersed, and '' the true liglit sMneth." 
Heaven is full of truth, of knowledge, and of 
CERTAINTY. There are no heresies to be cut off 
from that Church ; no '' seeing through a glass 
darkly f all is '' face to face ;" no knowing but 
'' in part f all '' know even as they also are 
known." In heaven, truth is like a great sea ; 
though shoreless and fathomless, yet transparent 
throughout ; and the Christian there is like one 
who, from the cliffs of some beautiful isle, looks 
down into the clear depths, as they reveal to him 
all their wonders, and rejoices that there are no 
limits to his discoveries but those which lie in the 
very boundlessness of the transparency. Is not 
this the mystery which Johu saw in the Revela- 
tions, when the Heavenly City appeared to him 
'' as pure gold, like unto clear glass ?" Was it not 
the gold of SIMPLE TRUTH, trausluceut to the eye of 
the spiritual man ? And was not a similar mys- 
tery brought before his mind, when he saw, be- 
neath the light of the seven mystic lamps burning 
"before the Throne, a sea of glass like unto crys- 
tal ; and in the midst of the Throne, and round 
about the Throne, four living ones full of eyes ?" 
Was it not the -transparent sea of truth spread 
out beneath the light of God's all-illuminating 
Spirit, into whose clear depths the eyes of the 
holy ones are ever looking to wonder and adore ? 



THE GHURGH IN HEA VEK 



34' 



And who, as yet, can tell me the glory and the 
blessedness of living in the light of such a life ? 
The bliss of knowing !* Our nature is brutish, 
even here, if it taste not something of the joy. 
And jet, the fullest light, the highest knowledge 
here is but " in part f it is all '' through a glass 
darkly.'' for perfect truth, perfect light, to 
show us all that we desire to know, and to stimu- 
late our desires to know all that an ever-unfolding 
eternity can reveal, with the certainty that every 
new step in knowledge will be a new degree in 
glory and in joy ! 

5. The Church in Heaven is characterized by 

SEPARATEiSrESS. 

This is near of kin to sanctity, and yet, the term 
brings up a somewhat different train of thought. 
On earth, even true Christians are more or less 
" conformed to the world " in their tastes, habits 
and intercourse. In heaven the spirit of such 
conformity disappears. The Church there is sepa- 
rate from the world — ^not because walls of ada- 
mant and gates of brass have been built between 
them, nor because measureless space has been in- 
terposed to prevent their association, but — because 
the desire to associate is unfelt. Moral differences 
there are seen in the light which reveals all things ; 
and being seen are also felt ; and the seen and felt 
difference between the holy and the unholy, be- 



342 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

tween the worldly and the unworldly, this is the 
wall that separates their destinies. This consti- 
tutes the measureless distance which is interposed 
between their eternal abodes. The voice of God, 
which separates between the wicked and the right- 
eous, is not a sound that falls on the ear of sense, 
but a conviction that is uttered into the heart 
of conscience. His segregating power lies in the 
light of His Truth, shining up and showing all 
moral and spiritual things just as they are, and, 
with its revealings, sending home into the souls of 
the holy and of the unholy a consciousness of eter- 
nal dissimilitude. Nowhere but in the world of 
spirits is that great truth, which Jesus taught, felt 
in its full power : " Every one that doeth evil 
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest 
his deeds should be reproved ; but he that doeth 
truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be 
made manifest that they are wrought in Grod." 

The mingling, now referred to in the Church on 
earth, as opposed to separateness in the heavenly 
Church, is not that of true and false members in 
the Church, but that of the true members of Christ 
with an ungodly world. And who can estimate 
the discount, which is thus forced upon the real 
dignitj^ and self respect, and upon the true happi- 
ness and usefulness of the visible body of Christ ? 
Every one knows, indeed, when he reflects, that 



THE CHUUGH IN HE A VEK 



343 



this conformity to the world is incompatible with 
either the real dignity or the proper self-respect 
of Christians ; and experience, if they would con- 
sult it, might convince all, as it has convinced 
myriads, that such conformity is fearfully ruinous 
both to genuine Christian happiness, and to desired 
Christian usefulness. Well, blessed be God ! in 
heaven all this will be unknown. There the saints 
will be cured, at last, of all their fond longings 
after the hurtful things which they have left be- 
hind ; and infinitely, then, will they be satisfied 
with the new state of separateness, into which they 
have been introduced. What a felt grandeur will 
invest their new dignity ! What a taste of sweet- 
ness will live in their divine self-respect ! What 
a happiness will they realize in their final and per- 
fect freedom from all that is incongruous in their 
associations ! And what an immensity of power 
will they have acquired for doing, as immortals 
love to do, the work of God through all His 
worlds ! No pride, or superciliousness at the 
thought of being greater, or better than others, but 
a glorious sense of perfect freedom in being and in 
doing what, as the saints of God, they were de- 
signed to be and to do ! This, I think, will be a 
pleasing wonder in the future Church ! 

6. The Church in Heaven will be characterized 

by SOCIAL FELLOWSHIP. 



344 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

This fellowship is intended to characterize the 
Church, even upon earth ; and what is more, it 
was intended to characterize even the visible 
Church in this world. It may be added, that, in 
some poor measure, this intention is actually re- 
alized ; and that, as realized, this fellowship is in- 
comparably better and more satisfying than any 
which the wicked ever know. But how poor is it, 
at the best, in comparison with what it ought to be ! 
How unspeakably poor in comparison with what it 
will be hereafter ! 

In heaven, the members of the Church have 
"fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Je- 
sus Christ," in all the perfection of that mystery. 
"The Communion of the Holy Ghost" also is with 
them in its divinest fullness. But, what I more 
particularly intend in this place is — the social fel- 
lowship which characterizes the Church in Heaven ; 
the fellowship of the saints with one another. 
They have fellowship with apostles and prophets, 
with martyrs and confessors, with patriarchs and 
all the holy men of old ; and they have this fellow- 
ship without alloy. " The Church of the first-born, 
which are written in heaven," is called "the gen- 
eral ASSEMBLY." It is a company ; and it exhibits 
the perfection of social life. It admits of no dis- 
social grades. Diversities of rank, office, and sta- 
tion may, and doubtless will, exist there ; for heav- 



TEE CHURCE IX EEA VEK 



345 



en is not a monotonous human level ; its idea is 
not that of a forced democratic equality ; it is a 
monarchy, whose monarch is God ; it is an Episco- 
pacy, whose "Bishop of souls" is Jesus ; and it is 
full of the diversities of ever varying character and 
attainments in perfection. But, whatever may be 
its diversities, the wonder of the heavenly state is, 
that they excite no separating feeling ; they oppose 
no bars to freedom and cordiality of intercourse. 
That unmasterable difficulty of earth is perfectly 
mastered in heaven. There are no senseless con- 
ventionalities, no artificial restraints, no stiff for- 
malities, no haughty coldnesses, in the society of 
" the saints in light.'' The loftiest spirit there 
feels no embarrassment in holding open fellowship 
with the lowliest follower of the Lamb ; but delights 
to sit in sacred converse and communion with him 
at the feet of Jesus. And why should he not? 
Jesus holds fellowship with them all ; Jesus, the 
Lamb, the lowliest, yet the loftiest, on high ! In 
His presence, in His service, and in His Church, 
there are and can be no rivalries, no jealousies, no 
clashing interests, no great families to be built up, 
and enclosed, and kept guarded from the poor, the 
obscure, the unknown. Nothing among His fol- 
lowers represses the indulgence of mutual sympa- 
thies. They are all as He requires them to be, 
*'like little children ;" and like little children they 



346 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

act just as they feel, and feel just as they act. 
Mere earthly titles, earthly wealth and earthly 
prejudices are left down in the grave, side by side 
with the obscurity, the indigence, and the depres- 
sion of the once suffering children of God. Differ- 
ences of race, of color and of clime are unknown ; 
and the worshippers in the heavenly sanctuary, the 
guests at the sacrament above, having laid aside 
these their incumbrances, and dropped all their 
badges of earthly distinction, stand up, in a nobler 
fellowship than earth can know, the fellowship, in 
all their heavenly ranks, of " the spirits of just 
men made perfect." 

Is there not something in our souls which longs 
for such a fellowship as that ? And is it not possi- 
ble for us to do something towards bringing down 
a little of it to ease and limber the poor, straight- 
ened, manacled state of our present social Church 
life ? 

7. The Church in Heaven is characterized by 
glory. 

When presented in heaven, it is to be presented 
as " a GLORIOUS Church f and its glory will be the 
clustering around it of all the perfections which 
have been named, together with the shining on 
its brow of a crown, made up of the light and the 
likeness of God and the Lamb. But there is a still 
further glory in the heavenly Church ; a glory by 



TEE CHURCH IX HEAVEN. 



347 



which our present sympathies may be more easily 
touched. There is a glory iu the rest, in the joy, 
and in the actioi^t of that Church. 

There is a glory in its eest. No sorrow, no suf- 
fering, no tears, no death can darken, or dim its 
radiance. Its rest, however, is not listlessncss, nor 
dreamy sleep. It is like the calm, which sur- 
rounds the moveless throne of God ; a living, wak- 
ing calm ; a repose fearless of interruption, and 
full of power. 

There is, too, a glory in its joy. It is a beaming 
of ''all the fullness of God "through that living 
sanctuary. The joy of the Church in heaven is the 
sunlight of eternal happiness shining into the 
souls that worship there. It is the everlasting light 
of God's love in their hearts, streaming out and 
around, like a forth-shining divinity, upon all in 
heaven ; till Jesus and His saints seem one in its 
illimitable brightness. 

And there is glory in its action. All right and 
good and great action is glorious. In heaven this 
glory is complete. The action of the Church there 
combiues the strength, the intelligence, and the 
harmony of one perfect Body, governed by one 
perfect Head, moved by one perfect Will, and tend- 
ing to one perfect good. The members of that 
Body are unfainting spirits. " They rest not day 
and night " in their divine emplo}^ No clogs of 



348 TEE LIYIJSfO TEMPLE. 

sense, no burden of the flesh, no dull and weary 
and earthly affections weigh them down. In their 
worship they never flag ; in their search for knowl- 
edge they never tire ; in their " labors of love " 
they never grow heartless. Energies worthy of 
the redeemed are alive there. Whether they sing 
the song of those who have been saved, or study 
adoringly into the wonders of the Divine Charac- 
ter and plan of Redemption ; or wander discur- 
sive amid the boundless works of God ; or trace 
the streams of knowledge up to their fountains in 
the eternal hills ; whether they do one, or another, 
or all of these things, they alike put forth the 
activities of free and noble, sinless and mighty 
spirits. Their activities are all-glorious. 

How little can we know on earth of such glorious 
rest, tilled with such glorious joy, and kindred with 
such glorious action ! Yet, Lord, send down upon 
Thy poor Church, even here, somewhat of the rich 
glory that awaits her ! 

8. And finally, the Church in Heaven is charac- 
terized by SAFETY. 

She is past all disastrous change. The '' Father's 
House of many mansions " is her eternal home ; 
His Kingdom of exhaustless richness is her eternal 
heritage ; and His fidelity, of infinite tenderness, is 
her eternal keeper. In this she has passed quite 
beyond all present experience of the Church on 



THE CHURCH m HEAVEN. 349 

earth. This Church is still '' militant," and many 
of the chequered incidents of " the holy war " lie 
still before her. Through battles and sieges, re- 
verses and successes, defeats and victories, she still 
holds her course. Security she may at times peri- 
lously indulge, but safety she can never really 
enjoy, until she reaches the home, the heritage and 
the keeping of her heavenly Head. This safety 
is the special portion of the Church in Heaven ; 
and how divinely full it is of blessedness ; what 
emphasis it gives to " the peace of God which pas- 
seth all understanding !" 

The Church in Heaven, then, is past all disas- 
trous change. It wades not through the blood and 
fires of successive Pagan persecutions. It passes 
through no night of Darkling Ages. It whets no 
sword, prepares no torture, and contrives no death, 
for those servants of Grod, who refuse to bow their 
necks to the yoke of error. It quakes amid the 
throes of no violent Reformation. It languishes 
not amid returning slumber, declension and decay. 
It dips no pen in the gall of controversy to stir up 
strife and teach brethren how to hate. It wars not 
against the Word of Grod. It cloaks no infidelity 
and no sensuality under the forms of cumbrous and 
unmeaning ceremony. It commits no mistakes by 
attempting to fashion or facilitate the providences 
supposed to be necessary to the fulfilment of unful- 



350 TEE LIVING TEMPLE. 

filled prophecy. Nor does it lie asleep while the 
Bridegroom is really coming to that fulfilment. 
But, past all such historic sadnesses, purified from 
all defiling mixtures, and made perfect by the dis- 
cipline of the Ages, it rests on immovable founda- 
tions a Heavenly Church, full of Grod, of His light, 
of His love, and of His praise ! 

Such is the Church in Heaven ! '* The King's 
daughter is all-glorious within ; and her clothing 
is of wrought gold." In describing her, I have 
dealt in no vain imaginations. The gold of which 
her vesture is wrought, is dug from the eternal 
mineS; as laid open in the field of inspired truth ; 
of truth inspired by Him to whom all secret things 
in heaven and earth are visible. The characteris- 
tics of the Church in glory are all characteristics 
of the Church in humiliation ; only they are but 
imperfectly manifested in this world, or are seen 
only in possibilities, as foreshadows of their com- 
ing reality. Their perfection is seen nowhere but 
in that world, where God appears unveiled to the 
eye of His " saints in light." 

And now, could I suppose these thoughts ad- 
dressed to any who have heretofore been thought- 
less and careless of their souls, I would ask of 
them one parting question. Will you go and join 
that "glorious Church" at which we have been 
looking ; the Church '' without spot or wrinkle ;" 



THE CHURGH IN EEA VEK 3 5 1 

the Ohurcli which is " holy and without blemish?" 
If you hope to live in heaven, you must become 
willing, nay, fit, to become members of the Church 
in Heaven. But how is this ? Multitudes hesitate. 
Multitudes are not ready to join even the Church 
on earth. They do not feel prepared, or fit, for 
fellowship with the saints in this their compara- 
tively imperfect state. How, then, can they go 
and joiu that '' glorious Church " above ? And 
yet, join it they must, if they are ever there. 
There is not and never will be, a human soul in 
heaven who is not, at the same time, a member of 
the Church in Heaven. Would to God men were 
ready for Church -membership even here, sincere, 
believing and affectionate membership with the 
true, though as yet but partially sanctified disci- 
ples of Christ! On such a readiness the benig- 
nant Father, God, would smile, and ripen it, as His 
sunshine ripens our swelling fruits into a rich 
and perfect meetness for what awaits His own in 
heaven ! 

But the subject, thus carried up to its final issues, 
respects, specially, those who are already members 
of the Church on earth ; and the principal thought 
which it should keep alive in their minds is this : 
the members of the Church on earth ought to regu- 
late their whole course of life, association, habit, 
and feeling, with reference to future membership 



352 THE LIVmO TEMPLE. 

in the Church in Heaven. The true Church here 
is more than a type of the glorified Church there. 
This earthly is more than a " pattern " of that 
heavenly thing. They are but parts of one and 
the same '' communion and fellowship." The 
earthly passes into the heavenly. The one is a 
school for education and discipline ; the other, is 
the society of alumni, graduated into an end- 
less life of action and enjoyment. The one is 
the porch ; the other, the great temple itself. The 
one is youth, tender and impressible ; the other, 
manhood, firm and vigorous. If, then, the child 
should carefully train and fashion himself for the 
duties and the destiny of the man, so should the 
Christian on earth regulate his whole course of 
life, association, habit and feeling with strict refer- 
ence to his future standing as a member of the 
Church in Heaven. He should do everything here 
which he would approve there, and nothing here 
which he would there condemn. Imperfect light 
and knowledge here may prevent his always see- 
ing what he would there either approve or con- 
demn ; and the feebleness of nature amid the 
powers of the world may sometimes render him 
unable to do or to avoid what he knows he ought 
to do or to avoid ; but, so far as he can see, or be 
made to see, what would be either approved or 
condemned in heaven, and so far as he has, or can 



THE CHURCH IN HEAVEK 



353 



obtain, strength either to do or to avoid the doing 
of it ; he should scrupulously regulate the present 
with reference to the future. He should habitually 
live as though his next communion were to be made 
in '' the Church of the first-born " and at the table 
in heaven ! And yet, how few, among professing 
Christians, ever think of making this the rule of 
their present life ! How few, by this rule, regu- 
late their intercourse with the world ! How few 
by this regulate their intercourse even with their 
fellow- Christians ! How few think of this either 
in their business or in their devotions, and how 
few practice according to it either in their plea- 
sures or in their charities ! 

The cases in which these suggestions will apply 
themselves, can be known only, or may be known 
best, by each individual member in the Church of 
Christ. These thoughts, however, must not have 
their close without an expression of the deep and 
solemn conviction that, if there can be tears in 
that world where *' all tears are wiped away from 
all faces," Christians will shed them when they 
come to look down from their seats on high upon 
the courses in life which they have been pursuing ; 
upon the present state of their associations, their 
habits and their feelings ; so full of conformity to 
the world, so dull, so languid, so selfish, so slow 
to good, so little like what they ought to be who 
23 



354 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 

profess to believe that their names are " weitten 

IN HEAVEN !" 

Let us all listen to the voice which is sounding 
in our ears : "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise 
from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light :" 
and, as we hear, let us all arouse ourselves, " gird 
up the loins of our minds," and henceforth live 
like men who do indeed •' wait for their Lord." 



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